LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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©|h|uM__ iqttin# f xr.. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 

From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. 
Each -witk Portrait, ismo, $i.ss. 
THREE VOLUMES ON MARIE ANTOINETTE. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD REGIME. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY. 

THREE VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 
CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 
THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 
THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 

FOUR VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE. 
THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 
MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 

TWO VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME. 

THE YOUTH OF THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME. 

THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULLmE AND THE TWO RESTORATIONS. 

THREE VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF BERRY. 

THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF LOUIS XVIII. 
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF CHARLES X. 
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE REVOLUTION OF JULY, 1830. 



Four New Voluines. 
WOMEN OF THE VALOIS AND VERSAILLES COURTS. 
WOMEN OF THE VALOIS COURT. 
WOMEN OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV. 
WOMEN OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. Vol. I. 
WOMEN OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. Vol. II. 




/_ 'jij\i xuitjji lU^ I ^-m^ 



MARIE LECZINSKA. 



WOMEN OF VERSAILLES 



THE 



COURT OF LOUIS XV, 



/ 



BY 



;tW Uon WamlMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND 



TRANSLATED BY 

ELIZABETH GILBERT MARTIN 



WITH PORTRAITS 




NEW YORK l^& 1 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ^ 
1893 



U I' 



Ai C I ^ 2 



-) o) 



COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Iktroduction 1 

FIEST PART 

[1715-1744] 

CHAPTER 

I. The Infanta Marie Anne Victoire, Betrothed 

OF Louis XV 13 

II. The Marriage of Marie Leczinska 23 

III. The Disgrace op the Marquise de Prie 31 

IV. The King Faithful to the Queen 39 

V. The Eavor of the Countess de Mailly 46 

VI. The Countess de Vintimille 53 

VII. The Disgrace of the Countess de Mailly 59 

VIII. The Reign of the Duchess de Chateauroux 68 

IX. The Journey to Metz 75 

X. The Death of the Duchess de Chateauroux.... 84 

SECOND PART 

[1745-1768] 

I. Louis XV. and the Eoyal Family in 1745 97 

II. The Beginnings op the Marquise de Pompadour 116 

III. The New Marquise 125 

V 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. Madame de Pompadour's Theatre 133 

V. The Grandeurs of the Marquise de Pompadour 147 

VI. The Griefs of the Marquise de Pompadour ... 156 

VII. Madame de Pompadour, Lady of the Queen's 

Palace 168 

VIII. Madame de Pompadour and the Attempt of 

Damiens 180 

IX. Madame de Pompadour and Domestic Politics . . 193 

X. Madame de Pompadour and the Seven Years' 

War 201 

XI. Madame de Pompadour and the Philosophers . . 214 

XII. The Death of the Marquise de Pompadour 225 

XIII. The Old Age of Marie Leczinska 233 

XIV. Marie Leczinska and her Daughters 245 

XV. The Dauphiness Marie Jos^phe of Saxony 258 

XVI. The Death of Marie Leczinska 269 



THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



INTRODUCTION 

IF you want romance, said M. Guizot one day, 
why not turn to history? The great author 
was right. The historical novel is out of fashion 
at present. People are tired of seeing celebrated 
people misrepresented, and they agree with Boileau 
that 

" Nothing is so beautiful as the true, the true alone is lovely." 

Are there, in fact, any inventions more striking than 
reality? Can any novelist, however ingenious, find 
more varied combinations or more interesting scenes 
than the dramas of history ? Could the most fer- 
tile mind imagine any types so curious as, for exam- 
ple, the women of the court of Louis XV.? The 
eternal womanly, as Goethe said, is all there with 
its vices and virtues, its pettiness and its grandeur, 
its weakness and its strength, its egotism and its 
devotion. What an instructive gallery ! What 
diverse figures, from such a saint as Madame Louise 
of France, the Carmelite, to Madame Dubarry, the 
courtesan ! In the Countess de Mailly, we have 

1 



THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



the modest favorite ; in the Duchess de Ch^teauroux, 
the haughty favorite ; in the Marquise de Pompa- 
dour, the intriguer, the female minister, the states- 
man ; in Queen Marie Leczinska, the model of 
conjugal duty and fidelity ; in the Dauphiness Marie 
Antoinette, the resplendent image of grace and 
youth, of poesy and purity; in the six daughters 
of the King, Madame the Infanta, so tender toward 
her father ; Madame Henriette, her twin sister, who 
died of chagrin at twenty-four because she could 
not marry according to her inclination ; Madame 
Adelaide and Madame Victoire, inseparable in ad- 
versity as well as in happier days ; Madame Sophie, 
gentle and timid; Madame Louise, Amazon and 
Carmelite by turns, who cried in the delirium of 
her last agony : " To Paradise, quick, quick, to 
Paradise at full gallop ! " 

History is the resurrection of the dead, but this 
resurrection is not an easy matter. To withdraw 
one's self from the present in order to live in the 
past, to display characters, to make audible the words 
of all these personages who are sleeping their last 
sleep, to rekindle so many extinct flames, evoke so 
many vanished shades, is a work that would need 
the wand of a magician. History interests and 
impassions only when it penetrates the secret of 
souls. To make it a painting, in animated tones and 
warm colors, and not an insignificant monochrome, 
it is necessary that men and things should reappear 
as in a mirror that reflects the past. 



INTRODUCTION 



The preservation of the palace where they passed 
their existence facilitates the renascence of the 
women of the court of Louis XV. It is some- 
thing to be able to say : Here such an event was 
accomplished, such a remark uttered. Here such 
a personage rendered her last sigh. The sight o:'" 
the rooms where so many dramas were unfolded is 
in itself a fruitful lesson. The theatre remains ; 
the decorations are hardly changed. But this is 
not all. The dust must be shaken from the cos- 
tumes ; the actors and actresses must be hunted up ; 
the play must begin anew. 

There is no lack of materials for this work of 
reconstruction ; they are even rather too abundant : 
memoirs by Duclos, Marais, Barbier, the Duke de 
Luynes, Maurepas, Villars, the Marquis d'Argenson, 
President Henault, Madame du Hausset, Count de 
Segur, Weber, Madame Campan ; — histories by Vol- 
taire, M. Henri Martin, Michelet, Jobez ; — works 
by the brothers Goncourt, Sainte-Beuve, M. de Les- 
cure, the Countess d'Armaill^, Boutaric, Honore Bon- 
homme, Campardon, Capefigue, Le Roi, Barth^lemy ; 
— collections by M. Feuillet de Conches and M. 
d'Arneth; — the secret correspondence of Louis XV. 
with his secret diplomatic corps, that of Count Mercy- 
Argenteau with the Empress Maria Theresa, new 
editions of ancient books, autographs, recent publi- 
cations — one is embarrassed by such a mass of 
riches. Not days, but months and years, are needed 
to become well acquainted with all these treasures. 



THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



But life is so short and so preoccupied with affairs 
that the public, with few exceptions, has neither 
time nor inclination to study so many volumes. Is 
it not a critic's business to spare his readers minute 
researches, to guide them through the labyrinth, to 
condense long works, to bring out saliently the most 
characteristic passages ; in a word, to facilitate study 
and popularize history while scrupulously respecting 
truth? This is what we shall try to do for Louis 
XV. and the women of his court. 

This much-decried monarch is one of those waver- 
ing, inconsequent, bizarre types of whom so many are 
found in our world of contradictions and miseries. 
Alas ! who has not something of Louis XV. in his 
own soul ? To see the good and do the evil ; to believe 
and not to practise ; to vainly seek a remedy for 
ennui in sensual pleasure ; to act against conscience 
and know self-condemnation, but not amendment ; to 
be dissatisfied with one's actions and lack strength 
for true repentance, — is not this the common lot ? 
How many honest citizens are mere repetitions of 
Louis XV., lacking his crown ! They show respect 
for their wives and affection for their children. 
They blame free thinkers severely. They speak 
respectfully of religion. And at the same time they 
do not observe the maxims of morality which they 
preach ; they keep mistresses, they are guilty of 
shameful debaucheries. Their life is a series of in- 
congruities ; they know neither what they are nor 
what they desire. Such was Louis XV. His religion 



INTRODUCTION 



was not hypocrisy. His attempts at conversion came 
to nothing, but they issued from the depths of his 
troubled conscience. He remained in the mire, but 
he dreamed of the light. Let us not be pitiless then. 
Is it graceful in demagogues to display such severity 
toward kings? Is there more morality under the 
red liberty caps than above the red-heeled slippers? 
Louis XV. was not a faithful husband, but he had 
a great veneration for his wife and a profound 
affection for his children. In spite of unpardonable 
scandals he was not so odious a character as he has 
been painted. Weakness is the word that best char- 
acterizes him, not malignity. 

Take his favorites from the sovereign, and he might 
be not simply a worthy man, but a great king. He 
is intelligent and kindly. His people adore him. 
Fortune has crowned him. Voltaire goes into ecsta- 
ssies over the glories of this reign, which the advocate 
Barbier declares to be the finest epoch in the entire 
history of France. What compromises, what ruins 
all this ? The great enemy, voluptuousness. 

Oh ! how swift, how slippery, is the descent into 
vice ! How one fault entails another ! During 
several years (1725-1733) Louis XV. is a model 
husband. Then he mysteriously commits a first 
infidelity; afterwards he stops at nothing. He is 
timid at first; he hides himself, but by degrees he 
becomes bolder. He declares himself at first with 
the Countess de Mailly; afterwards with her sister, 
the Countess de Vintimille ; however, he still main- 



THi: COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



tains some restraint. Louis XV. is stingy with the 
State funds; his old preceptor, Cardinal Fleury, 
retains some influence over him. But Fleury dies 
(1743) ; the King has a mentor no longer ; he 
emancipates himself ; the scandal gains strength and 
is triumphant in the person of a third sister, the 
Duchess of Chateauroux. Heaven, nevertheless, 
sends the monarch some severe lessons ; Madame de 
Vintimille had died in childbirth (1741) ; the King 
himself came near dying at Metz ; the Duchess of 
Chateauroux dies of chagrin and other emotions at 
the close of 1744. People think Louis XV. is about 
to change his ways. 'Tis an error : here comes the 
minister in petticoats, the Marquise de Pompadour, a 
queen of the left hand. She, to use Voltaire's ex- 
pression, is a sort of grisette made for the opera or 
the seraglio, who tries to amuse this bored monarch 
by diversions still "more preposterous than his dul- 
ness. She dies at the task, and Louis XV. has not 
even a tear for her. As Rochefoucauld has said : " If 
a man thinks he loves his mistress for love of her, he 
is much mistaken." Louis XV. is growing old. 
The Queen dies in 1768. He regrets her, and people 
fancy that at last he is going to follow the wise 
advice of his surgeon, and not merely rein his horses 
up, but take them out of the traces. They are reck- 
oning without the woman who is about to bring the 
slang of Billingsgate to Versailles. After great 
ladies the great citizeness ; after her the woman of 
the people; the De Nesle sisters are followed by 



INTRODUCTION 



Madame de Pompadour ; Madame de Pompadour by 
Dubarry ; Dubarry, the " portiere of the Revolution." 
One thing strikes me in this series of royal mis- 
tresses ; I see debauchery everywhere, but nowhere 
love. Love with its refinements, its disinterested- 
ness, its spirit of sacrifice, its mysticism, its poetry — 
where is it? I perceive not even the least shadow 
of it. Ah ! how right was Rochefoucauld in saying : 
"It is the same thing with true love as with the 
apparition of ghosts ; everybody talks about, but 
very few have seen it." Voluptuousness, on the 
other hand, is shameless in its cynicism, and when I 
contemplate this wretched King whom it degrades 
and corrupts and weakens, who is wearied and com- 
plains and is sad unto death, I recall a page from one 
of the most eloquent of men : " The intoxication 
once past, there remains in the soul a doleful aston- 
ishment, a bitterly experienced void. It may be 
filled by new agitations ; but it is reproduced again 
vaster than before, and this painful alternation be- 
tween extreme joys and profound depression, between 
flashes of happiness and the impossibility of being 
happy, begets at last a state of continual sadness. 
. . . Say no longer to the man attacked by it: See 
what a fine day ! Say no more : Listen to this sweet 
music ! Do not even say : I love you ! Light, har- 
mony, love, all that is good and charming can do no 
more than irritate his secret wound. He is doomed 
to the 3Ianes, and everything appears to him as if he 
were in a sepulchre, stifling for want of air and 



8 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

crushed by the weight of marble. . . . There comes 
a moment when all the man's satiated powers give 
him an invincible certainty of the nothingness of the 
universe. Once a fleeting smile was all the despair- 
ing man needed to open limitless perspectives before 
him ; now the adoration of the world would not affect 
him. He estimates it at its true value : nothing." ^ 

Is not the profound sadness of Louis XV. a moral 
lesson as striking as any instruction from the 
preachers ? Here is a sovereign privileged by des- 
tiny, handsome, powerful, victorious, surrounded by 
general admiration, possessor of the first throne of 
the universe, loved almost to idolatry by his people, 
having a tender and devoted wife, good and respect- 
ful children, soldiers who long to die bravely in his 
service to the cry of, " Long live the King ! " He 
dwells in splendid palaces; when he pleases, he 
shakes off the yoke of etiquette and lives like a 
private gentleman in little residences which are 
masterpieces of grace and good taste ; every one 
seeks to divine his wishes, his caprices; all the 
arts are pressed into the service of making life 
agreeable to him; all pleasures, all elegancies, con- 
spire to charm and entertain him. His health is 
robust; boon-companion, bold horseman, indefati- 
gable huntsman and lover, he enjoj^s every pleasure 
at his will. Well, he is plunged into the depths of 
ill-humor, the most dismal melancholy, and the senti- 

1 Lacordaire, 2d Toulouse Conference. 



INTRODUCTION 



ment he inspires in those who observe him closely — 
as every memoir of the time attests — is not envy, 
but pity. 

What conclusion can one draw from this except 
that neither the dazzle of riches, the prestige of 
pride, the fumes of incense, the caresses of flattery, 
the false joys of sensual pleasure, nor the intoxica- 
tions of power can make man happy ! He thirsts in 
the middle of the fountain ; he finds thorns in the 
crown of roses that encircles his forehead, and a 
gnawing worm creeps, like Cleopatra's asp, into the 
odorous flowers whose perfume he inhales. The 
lamps of the festival grow dim, the boudoirs look 
like tombs, and suddenly the Manes, Tekel^ Phares, 
appears in flaming letters on the portals of gold and 
marble. O King, expect neither truce to thy woes 
nor distraction from thine ennui, that implacable 
companion of thy grandeur ! Thou art thine own 
enemy, and all will betray thee, because thou art not 
reconciled with thyself. Most Christian King, son of 
Saint Louis, thou dost suffer, and oughtest to suffer, 
for thou canst neither seat thyself tranquilly upon 
the throne nor kneel before the altar ! 

The end of this existence was dismal. Count de 
Segur relates that as Louis XV. was going to the 
chase he met a funeral and approached the coffin. 
As he liked to ask questions, he inquired who was to 
be buried. They told him it was a young girl who 
had died of small-pox. Seized with sudden terror, 
he returned to his palace of Versailles and was 



10 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

almost instantly attacked by the cruel malady whose 
very name had turned him pale. Gangrene invaded 
the body of the voluptuous monarch. People fled 
from him with terror as if he were plague-stricken. 
His daughters alone, his daughters, models of courage 
and devotion, braved the contagion and would not 
leave his death-bed. 

Study history seriously. You fancy you will en- 
counter scandal, but you will find edification. Cor- 
rupt epochs are perhaps more fruitful in great lessons 
than austere ones. It is not virtue, but vice, which 
cries to us : Vanity, all is vanity. It is the guilty 
women, the royal mistresses, who issue from their 
tombs and, striking their breasts, accuse themselves 
in presence of posterity. These beauties who appear 
for an instant on the scene and then vanish like 
shadows, these unhappy favorites who wither in a 
day like the grass of the field, these wretched victims 
of caprice and voluptuousness, all speak to us like 
the sinful woman of the Gospel, and history is thus 
morality in action. 



FIRST PART 



[1715-1744] 



11 



THE INFANTA MAEIE ANNE VICTOIRE, BETROTHED 
OF LOUIS XV. 

WHEN Louis XIV. gave up the ghost, Ver- 
sailles also seemed to die. No one ventured 
to dwell in the palace of the Sun King. During 
seven years it was abandoned. September 9, 1715, 
at the very moment when Louis XV., then five and 
a half years old, was returning to Vincennes, the 
body of him who had been Louis XIV. was carried 
to its last abode, at Saint-Denis. The people danced, 
sang, drank, and gave themselves up to a scandalous 
joy. The following epigram got into circulation : — 

" Non, Louis n'etait pas si dur qu'il le parut, 
Et son ti'epas le justifie, 
Puisque, aussi bieii que le Messie, 
II est inort pour notre salut." ^ 

Such is the gratitude of peoples! This is what 
remains of so many flatteries, so much incense ! Sio 
transit gloria viundi. 

1 No, Louis was less harsh than he appeared ; 
His death has justified him, 
Since he, as well as the Messiah, 
Has died for our salvation. 
13 



14 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

France, which insulted the memory of the heroic 
old man, was on its knees before a child. September 
12, an enormous crowd was surging around the 
palace of the Parliament in Paris. Little Louis XV. 
alighted from his carriage amidst acclamations, and 
formally entered the palace. He took off his hat, 
and then, replacing it on his head, said graciously: 
" Gentlemen, I have come here to assure you of my 
affection. Monsieur the Chancellor will acquaint 
you with my will." And the first president re- 
sponded : " We are all eager to contemplate you 
upon your bed of justice like the image of God on 
earth." 

" Princes are badly brought up," says the Marquis 
d'Argenson. " Nothing flatters and nothing corrects 
them." Ought not one to be indulgent toward a 
prince to whom his governor. Marshal Villeray, kept 
repeating on the balcony of the Tuileries : " Look, 
master, look at these people ; well ! they are all 
yours, they all belong to you." The regent said 
to the little monarch : " I am here only to render 
you my accounts, to offer matters for your consid- 
eration, to receive and execute your orders." The 
child thought himself a man already. 

In 1721 they affianced him to the Infanta Marie 
Anne Victoire, daughter of Philip V., King of Spain. 
Louis XV. was not yet eleven years old ; the Infanta 
was only three. They had all the difficulty in the world 
to induce the monarch to say the necessary yes. His 
little betrothed arrived in Paris the following year 



THE INFANTA MABIE ANNE VICTOIRE 15 

(March 22, 1722). Louis XV. went to meet her at 
Montrouge. All along the route the houses were 
decked with hangings and adorned with flowers and 
foliage. The next day the gazettes informed the public 
that the Queen — so they called the Infanta — had re- 
ceived from the King a doll worth twenty thousand 
livres. Three months later (June, 1722), Louis 
XV. and his betrothed established themselves at 
Versailles, which again became the political capital 
of France. The King took possession of the bed- 
chamber of Louis XIV. ,^ which he used until 1738. 
The Infanta was lodged in the apartment of the 
Queen, and slept in the chamber ^ that had been 
occupied by Marie Therdse, the Bavarian dauphiness, 
and the Duchess of Burgundy. She made the two 
youngest daughters of the regent her inseparable 
companions, treating them as if they were younger 
than herself, although they were twice her age. She 
kept them in leading-strings under pretext of pre- 
venting them from falling, and as she embraced them 
on their departure, she would say : " Little princesses, 
go home now and come to see me every day." 

Louis XV. was crowned at Rheims, October 25, 
1722. "People remember," says the Marquis d'Ar- 
genson, "how much he resembled Love that morn- 
ing, with his long coat and silver cap, in the costume 
of a neophyte or candidate for kingship. I have 

1 Room No. 124 of the Notice du MusHe de Versailles, by M. 
Eudore Soulie. 

2 Room No. 115 of the Notice du 3Iusee de Versailles. 



16 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

never seen anything so affecting as his figure at that 
time. All eyes grew moist with tenderness for this 
poor little prince, sole scion of a numerous family, 
all other members of which had perished, not with- 
out a suspicion of having been poisoned." France 
idolized this little King whose beauty, of a supreme 
distinction, had somewhat ideal in it; the Emperor 
of Germany said he was the child of Europe. Hav- 
ing completed his thirteenth year, he was, as usual, 
proclaimed of age (February, 1723), and that same 
year, the Duke of Orleans, who had most loyally 
fulfilled his duties toward his pupil, assumed the 
functions of prime minister on the death of Cardinal 
Dubois. He showed profound deference toward 
the young sovereign, and carried his portfolio to him 
at five o'clock every afternoon. The King enjoyed 
this occupation, and always looked forward impa- 
tiently to the hour. 

When the Duke of Orleans died suddenly at Ver- 
sailles (December 2, 1723), Louis XV. regretted him 
sincerely. It was a woman who reigned under cover 
of the new prime minister, the Duke of Bourbon. 
She was one of those ambitious creatures to whom the 
moral sense is lacking, but who possess wit, grace, 
and charm ; one of those enchantresses who, by dint 
of intrigues, end by falling into their own snares and 
cruelly expiate their short-lived triumphs. The Mar- 
quise de Prie, the all-powerful mistress of the Duke, 
was twenty-five years old. The daughter of the rich 
financier Berthelot de Pleneuf, she had married a 



THE INFANTA MARIE ANNE VICTOIBE 17 

nobleman whom she managed to have appointed am- 
bassador to Turin. She led a very fast life in that 
city, and got herself into debt. Her father being 
unable to maintain her any longer, she was obliged to 
escape from the courts of justice, and the Marquis de 
Prie was recalled from his embassy. The young Mar- 
quise was not the woman to be discouraged by such 
reverses. She had only to show herself in order to 
subjugate the Duke of Bourbon, and assume a princely 
luxury. " She had a charming face," says the Mar- 
quis d'Argenson, " a sharp and crafty wit, a touch of 
genius, ambition, and recklessness. . . . The Duke 
was madly in love with her. I knew their habits, 
"their visits to the opera ball, their little house in the 
rue Sainte ApoUine, their gray-looking hack, which 
had the appearance of a public conveyance on the out- 
side, but was extremely magnificent within. . . . She 
played the queen just as I would make a valet-de- 
chambre of my lackey." 

When they were carrying the reliquary of Sainte 
Genevieve in procession in 1725, because the rains 
had spoilt the crops, she said : " The people are crazy ; 
don't they know that it is I who make rain and fine 
weather ? " 

Violent under an air of gentleness, insatiable for 
money and power beneath an exterior of careless dis- 
interestedness, a libertine through habit rather than 
from passion, running after pleasure without seeking 
love, betraying with impunity her lover who believed 
what she said against the evidence of his own eyes. 



18 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Madame de Prie despotically ruled both tlie Duke 
of Bourbon and France. But one thing disquieted 
her: the young King's health was delicate. If he 
should die suddenly, the crown would revert to the 
Orleans branch, between which family and the Duke 
of Bourbon there existed a thoroughgoing enmity. 
In 1725 the Infanta, the betrothed of Louis XY., was 
only seven years old. Several years must elapse, 
therefore, before the marriage could be consummated. 
Now, there was no repose possible for the Duke and 
his favorite so long as the King had no direct heir. 
The Duke slept at Versailles in an apartment 
directly under that of the King. One night he 
thought he heard more noise and movement than 
usual. He rose precipitately and went up stairs in a 
great fright and his dressing gown. The first surgeon, 
Mar^chal, astonished to see him appear in this guise, 
asked the cause of his alarm. The Duke, beside him- 
self, could only stammer : " I heard some noise — 
the King is sick — what will become of me?" 
Somewhat reassured by Mardchal, he consented to go 
down again to his apartment, but he was overheard 
muttering to himself : " I would never get back here 
again. If he recovers, we must marry him." 
It was resolved to send back the Infanta on 
account of her youth. Her father, Philip V., was 
indignant at such an outrao'e. " There is not blood 
enough in all Spain to avenge such an insult," said 
he. At Madrid the shouting populace were allowed 
to drag an effigy of Louis XV. through the streets, 



THE INFANTA MARIE ANNE VICTOIEE 19 

and the shepherds of the Spanish Pyrenees came into 
the pasture lands of French valleys to hamstring the 
cattle. 

Two Princesses of Orleans were then in Spain. 
They were both daughters of the regent, and had 
been sent to Madrid at the time when Marie Anne 
Victoire, the betrothed of Louis XV., had come to 
France.^ One of them. Mademoiselle de Montpen- 
sier, born in 1709, married the Prince of the Astu- 
rias, eldest son of Philip V. The other. Mademoiselle 
de Beaujolais, born in 1714, was affianced to Don 
Carlos, brother to the Prince of the Asturias. The 
first was sad, cross, and whimsical; the second, on 
the contrary, was a delightful child, as pretty as she 
was intelligent. When she arrived in Spain, she 
was seven years old, the same age as Don Carlos, 
and Queen Elizabeth Farnese wrote to the Duke of 
Orleans : " Her little husband is in transports of 
joy over her, and is only too happy to have such a 
charming Princess." 

When Philip V. abdicated in 1724, in favor of the 
Prince of the Asturias (Louis I.), Mademoiselle de 
Montpensier became Queen. But the new King 
died at the end of eight months. Philip V. resumed 
the crown, and the widow remained without any 
influence at court. As soon as it was known at 
Madrid that Louis XV. was not to marry the In- 



1 See the interesting work by M. Edouard de Bartlielemy, Les 
filles du Regent, 2 vols., Firmin Didot. 



20 TBE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

fanta, Marie Anne Victoire, it was determined by 
way of reprisals that the widow of King Louis 
and Mademoiselle de Beaujolais, the betrothed of 
Don Carlos, should be immediately sent back to 
Versailles. Spain saw the Queen, who was not at 
all sympathetic, depart without regret; but people 
were grieved at the departure of Mademoiselle de 
Beaujolais, who at the age of nine years was already 
charming, and who, appearing like a ray of light in 
the sombre Escurial, had made herself beloved by 
her little betrothed. 

In France, too, the sending back of the Infanta, 
who was by anticipation already styled the Queen, 
did not occur without exciting some regret. The 
little Princess, now seven years old, had been con- 
fided to the care of Madame de Ventadour, the 
former governess of Louis XV., who loved her 
fondly. The great-granddaughter of Louis XIV. 
already knew how to nod graciously in response to 
the homage of the crowd, and everybody admired 
her pretty ways. But Louis XV., who was in his 
sixteenth year, and precocious, was hardly satisfied 
with so young a fiancee. He was pleased therefore 
with the breaking off of a marriage whose consum- 
mation he must have waited for so long, and, accord- 
ing to Voltaire's expression, he was like a bird whose 
cage has been changed when he saw the Infanta 
depart. Beautiful presents, however, were made to 
the young Princess, and it was determined that her 
return should be accomplished with a respectful 



THE INFANTA MABIE ANNE VICTOIRE 21 

magnificence and ceremony. She left Versailles 
April 5, 1725, and on reaching the frontier, she was 
exchanged at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port for the two 
Princesses of Orleans (the widow of King Louis and 
Mademoiselle de Beaujolais). Married in 1729 to 
Joseph Emanuel, then Prince, afterwards King of 
Portugal, " she gave that sovereign," says Voltaire, 
" the children she was not allowed to give to Louis 
XV. and was not happier on account of it." As to 
the two Princesses of Orleans, their destiny was 
unhappy : the queen dowager of Spain, who died in 
1742, lived in poverty, with a barren title and the 
simulacrum of a court. Her two families had but 
one thought, — that of ridding themselves of the 
support of this unfortunate young woman. Spain 
showed excessive negligence in the payment of her 
pension, and after having reigned over one of the 
principal kingdoms of the world, she was obliged, by 
economical reasons, to spend three consecutive years 
with the Carmelites of Paris. Still living, she was 
treated as if already dead. Her sister, Mademoiselle 
de Beaujolais, so amiable, sweet, and attractive, re- 
tained a tender memory of her former betrothed, 
Don Carlos (the future Charles III.), who, on his 
side, did not forget her. Possibly a means of renew- 
ing their engagement might have been found. But 
the young girl died in 1734, carrying her faithful 
regret with her to the tomb. She was not yet 
twenty. 

The rupture of the marriage of Louis XV. was not 



22 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



a fortunate event. The Prince was only fifteen years 
old. He might easily have waited several years 
longer before marrying. His studies and his energy 
would both have been the gainers by it. Moreover, 
it was an evil thing to insult a great nation like 
Spain. It was not alone the Spanish people that 
were outraged, but the glorious memory of the In- 
fanta's great-grandfather, the grand King who had 
said : " There are no more Pyrenees." A fatal lesson 
was given to the young sovereign when he was thus 
taught to violate sworn faith, and habituated from his 
adolescence to those culpable caprices, those egotistic 
desertions of which his reign was to afford more than 
one example. 



II 

THE MAEKIAGE OF MAKIE LECZINSKA 

IN the year 1725, a poor exiled king and his family 
were living in a dilapidated old commandery in 
Wissemburg, a little town of Alsace. This king 
without a kingdom, this fugitive who dignified his 
poverty by the resignation with which he endured 
misfortune, was the Pole, Stanislas Leczinski, the 
protege of Charles XII. of Sweden. Driven from 
Poland after a very short reign, Stanislas had found 
an asylum in France, and lived in Wissemburg in 
complete retirement with his mother, his wife, his 
daughter, and several gentlemen who had been faith- 
ful to him in misfortune. His daughter, Marie, born 
in Breslau, June 23, 1703, was at this time twenty- 
two years old. Pious, gentle, and sympathetic, she 
was the joy of the exiles. When they spoke to her 
of projected marriages, she would say to her parents : 
" Do not think you can make me happy by sending 
me away ; it would be far sweeter to me to share 
your ill-fortune than to enjoy, at a distance, a happi- 
ness which would not be yours." Her education had 
been as intelligent as it was austere. She spent the 

23 



24 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

time not occupied in prayer and study in working for 
the poor of the city or embroidering ornaments for 
churches. She was a true Christian, one of those 
admirable young girls whose charm has in it some- 
thing evangelic, and who make virtue lovable. 

One day Stanislas, much moved, entered the room 
where his wife and daughter were. " Let us kneel 
down," he exclaimed, " and return thanks to God ! " 
— " Father," said Marie, " have you been called back 
to the throne of Poland ?" — " Ah ! daughter," he 
replied, "Heaven is far more favorable to us than 
that. You are Queen of France." It was not a 
dream. The exile's daughter, the poor and obscure 
Princess, living on alms from the French court, who, 
but the day before, would have been happy to marry 
one of those who were now to be her principal offi- 
cials, ascended as if by miracle the greatest throne in 
the world. How had she happened to be preferred 
to the ninety-nine marriageable princesses, a list of 
whom had been drawn up at Versailles ? There was 
but this simple remark below her name in the list : 
" Nothing disadvantageous is known concerning this 
family." Louis XV. who had sent back the daughter 
of a King of Spain could choose among the wealthi- 
est and most highly placed princesses in Europe. 
How did they contrive to make him marry this poor 
Polish girl who brought him no dot and who was 
seven years his senior (in an inverse sense, the same 
difference of age that existed between him and the In- 
fanta, his first betrothed) ? It is true that a former 



THE MARRIAGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA 25 

secretary of embassy, Lozilli^res, whom the Duke of 
Bourbon had sent to make inquiries about twenty- 
seven princesses, had thus drawn the portrait of Marie 
Leczinska : " This Princess, as simple as the daughter 
of Alcinoiis, who knows no cosmetics but water and 
snow, and, seated between her mother and her grand- 
mother, embroiders altar-cloths, recalls to us, in the 
commandery of Wissemburg, the artlessness of heroic 
times." Was it this mythological style which af- 
fected sceptical and depraved souls like those of the 
Duke of Bourbon and his mistress, Madame de Prie ? 
It was not this, at all events, which chiefly pre- 
occupied them. If they selected Marie Leczinska, it 
was because they fancied that, owing her elevation 
solely to their caprice, she would esteem herself in 
their debt and be their tool. What pleased them in 
her was that she had no resources ; that a price had 
been set upon her father's head ; that the exile, dis- 
possessed of his throne for thirteen years, had wan- 
dered from asylum to asylum, in Turkey, in Sweden, 
in the principality of Deux-Ponts, and in Alsace ; 
that the young girl was merely agreeable without 
being beautiful ; that she was seven years older than 
Louis XV. ; and that in calling her to the throne in 
the most unforeseen and inconceivable manner, the 
Duke and Madame de Prie would create for them- 
selves exceptional claims upon her gratitude- 
Louis XV. was at this time the most beautiful 
youth in the kingdom. An ideal lustre illuminated 
his charming visage, and when they were praising the 



26 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

graces of her young betrothed to Marie Leczinska: 
" Alas ! " said she, "you redouble my alarms." 

One should read in the sympathetic work of the 
Countess d'Armaill6,i the story of the beginnings 
of this union which was at first to be so happy. 
Louis XV. made his official request for the hand of 
Marie Leczinska through Cardinal de Rohan, Bishop 
of Strasburg. She contented herself with respond- 
ing : " I am penetrated with gratitude. Monsieur the 
Cardinal, for the honor done me by the King of 
France. My will belongs to my parents, and their 
consent will be mine." The marriage by proxy took 
place at Strasburg, August 14, 1725. The King 
was represented by the Duke of Orleans. After 
having received her parents' blessing, and distributed 
souvenirs to the faithful companions of her exile, 
Marie went to join Louis XV. She was greeted 
everywhere she went with extravagant laudations. 
" There is nothing which the good French people do 
not do to divert me," she wrote at the time to Stan- 
islas Leczinski. " They say the finest things in the 
world to me, but nobody says that you may be near 
me. Perhaps they will say so presently, for I am 
journeying in fairyland, and am veritably under their 
magical dominion. At every instant I undergo 
transformations, of which one is more brilliant than 
the other. Sometimes I am fairer than the Graces : 



1 La Beine Leczinska, by Madame the Countess d'Armaille, 
born De Segur, 1 vol., Dentu. 



THE MARRIAGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA 27 

again, I belong to the family of the Nine Sisters ; 
here, I have the virtues of an angel ; there, the sight 
of me makes people happy. Yesterday I was the 
wonder of the world ; to-day I am the lucky star. 
Every one does his best to deify me, and doubtless 
I shall be placed among the immortals to-morrow. 
To dispel the illusion, I lay my hand on my head, 
and instantly find again her whom you love, and who 
loves you very tenderly." The new Queen of France 
signed this letter with the Polish diminutive of her 
name: Maruchna. 

At Suzanne, September 3, a page, the Prince of 
Conti, brought her a bouquet from Louis XV. Near 
Moret, the next day, she saw her husband for the 
first time. As soon as he appeared she threw herself 
on her knees on a cushion ; the King raised her at 
once and embraced her affectionately. The royal 
pair made their entry at Fontainebleau September 5, 
and were crowned the following day. " The Queen," 
wrote Voltaire, " makes a very good appearance, 
although her face is not at all pretty. Everybody 
is enchanted with her virtue and her politeness. 
The first thing she did was to distribute among the 
princesses and ladies of the palace all the magnificent 
trinkets composing what is called her corbeille, which 
consisted of jewels of every sort except diamonds. 
When she saw the casket in which they had been 
placed : ' This is the first time in my life,' said she, 
' that I have been able to make presents.' She wore 
a little rouge on her wedding day, just enough to 



28 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

prevent her from looking pale. She fainted for an 
instant in the chapel, but only for form's sake. 
There was a comedy performed the same day. I 
had prepared a little entertainment which M. de 
Mortemart would not execute. In place of it they 
gave Amphion and Le Medecin malgre lui, which 
did not seem very appropriate. After supper there 
were fireworks with many rockets and very little 
invention and variety. . . . For the rest, there is a 
frightful noise, racket, crowd, and tumult here." 

The Queen pleased everybody by her extreme 
affability. What they admired was neither the 
magnificence of her costume, the Sancy that sparkled 
on her corsage, nor the Regent that glittered on her 
chaste forehead, but her modesty, her benevolence, 
her gentleness, the grace which is still more beauti- 
ful than beauty. Voltaire was in the front rank of the 
courtiers of this new star which shed so soft a lustre. 
But he did not find his r61e as flatterer rewarded by 
sufficient gratuities. Hence he wrote from Fontaine- 
bleau : " I have been very well received by the 
Queen. She wept over Marianne, she laughed over 
L'Indiscret ; she oftens talks to me, she calls me 
her poor Voltaire. A blockhead would be satisfied 
with all this ; but, unfortunately, I think soundly 
enough to feel that praise does not amount to much, 
and that the r61e of a poet at court always entails 
upon him something slightly ridiculous. You would 
not. believe, my dear Thiriot, how tired I am of my 
life as a courtier. Henri IV. is very stupidly sacri- 



THE MARRIAGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA 29 

ficed at the court of Louis XV. I bewail the mo- 
ments I rob him of. The poor child ought to have 
appeared already in quarto, with fine paper, fine 
margins, and fine type. That "vvill surely come this 
winter, whatever may happen. I think you will 
find this work somewhat more finished than Mari- 
anne. The epic is my forte, or I am very much 
mistaken. . . . The Queen is constantly assas- 
sinated with Pindaric odes, sonnets, epistles, and 
epithalamiums. I fancy she takes the poets for 
court-fools ; and in this case she is quite right, for 
it is great folly for a man of letters to be here. 
They give no pleasure and receive none." ^ 

By dint of compliments in prose and verse, Vol- 
taire obtained a pension of 1500 livres, which made 
him write to la jjresidente de Bernidres, November 13, 
1725 : " I count on the friendliness of Madame de 
Prie. I no longer complain of court life, I begin to 
have reasonable expectations." 

Some days afterwards (December 1, 1725), Marie 
Leczinska left Fontainebleau and went to Versailles. 
She installed herself in what were called the Queen's 
apartments, and slept in the chamber which had 
been successively occupied by Marie Th^rese, the 
Bavarian Dauphiness, the Duchess of Burgundy, and 
the Infanta Marie Anne Victoire. There she brought 
her ten children into the world, and it was there she 
was to die. 

1 Letter to M. Thiriot, October 17, 1725. 



30 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The early days of the marriage were very happy ; 
at that time Louis XV. was a model youth. The 
counsels of his former preceptor, the Bishop of 
Frejus; the sense of duty; religious beliefs; the 
timidity inseparable from adolescence, — all these 
contributed to keep in the paths of wisdom the young 
monarch who dreamed of being a good husband and 
father, a good king, and working out his own 
salvation along with the welfare of his subjects. 
ISTaturally inclined to the pleasures of the senses, he 
attached himself to Marie Leczinska with the ardor 
of an innocent young man who loves for the first 
time. Notwithstanding the shamelessness of many of 
them, the court beauties did not yet venture to 
raise their eyes toward this royal adolescent, who 
made even the most audacious respectful, by his 
gentleness and his reserve. Nothing, at this time, 
announced the disorders to which the young mon- 
arch was one day to yield himself. The 7'oues of 
the Regency could not console themselves for hav- 
ing so calm and virtuous a master; they awaited 
with impatience the moment when they could thrust 
him over the declivity of scandal, and, like real 
demons, they lay in wait for their prey. 



Ill 

THE DISGRACE OF THE MARQUISE DE PRIE 

THE Marquise de Prie congratulated herself 
upon having brought Marie Leczinska to the 
throne. It was, in fact, as D' Argenson has remarked, 
an excellent choice, according to the views of the 
Marquise : " Feciindity, piety, sweetness, humanity, 
and, above all, a great incapacity for affairs. This 
court policy required, moreover, a woman without 
attractions and without coquetry, who could only 
retain her husband through the sense of duty and 
the necessity of giving heirs to the crown." The 
Duke and his favorite had found in the Queen all 
the gratitude and complaisance they had counted 
on. As to the King, amused by the chase, festivities, 
journeys to Marly, Chantilly, and Rambouillet, he 
occupied himself with politics very little. The 
prime minister could flatter himself on being a real 
mayor of the palace. But he had reckoned without 
a prelate of seventy-four years, to whom ambition 
had come with age, and who was about to cast down 
with a breath all this scaffolding of intrigues and 
calculations. 

31 



32 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Fleury, Bishop of Fr^jus, the preceptor of Louis 
XV., was of humble origin, having been the son of 
a tithe-collector^ in the diocese of Fr^jus. Ap- 
pointed chaplain to Queen Marie Th^r^se in 1680, 
"he was," says Saint-Simon, "received at the min- 
isters' houses where, in fact, he was of as little 
importance as he was elsewhere, and often supplied 
the place of a bell before such things had been 
invented." He was selected as preceptor for the 
little Prince, who was to be styled Louis XV., and 
gained his pupil's good-will by his easy, gentle, and 
insinuating character, his perfect calmness, and his 
mingled veneration and tenderness for a child who, 
thinking himself always menaced, felt that this 
assiduous and obsequious devotion protected him. 
The secret of his affection for Fleury was that Fleury 
never opposed him. He affected, moreover, an abso- 
lute disinterestedness, and seemed to be making a 
sacrifice to the King by remaining at court instead 
of taking refuge in a convent. The Bishop was 
always one of the party when the young King was 
working, or pretending to work, with his Ministers. 
In appearance he guarded the most humble, most 
insignificant attitude ; but, in reality, he exerted an 
influence which exasperated the Duke, and still more 
Madame de Prie. The Queen herself was jealous 
of the confidence enjoyed by this silent old man who 



"^ Beceveur des decimes — the tithe formerly paid by the clergy 
to the kings of France. 



DISGRACE OF THE MARQUISE DE PRIE 33 

followed the King like his shadow, and who seemed 
likely to monopolize everything in spite of his modest 
airs. The Marquise, who had constant access to 
the Queen in her capacity as lady of the palace, con- 
trived a real plot with her. It was a question of 
getting rid of this troublesome third person who was 
always putting himself between the King and the 
Prime Minister. " In order to deliver herself from 
the old Bishop, Madame de Prie devised a scheme 
by which she might take his place, and enter almost 
openly into the council of State. She persuaded her 
lover to induce the King to work in the apartments 
of the Queen whom he loved, at least with that love 
which every young man feels for the first woman he 
possesses. The preceptor, having no lessons to give 
there, would not follow his pupil, so that, without 
being pushed too rudely he would slip out of his 
place, and, naturally, find himself on the ground. 
Then the Marquise, relying on the good-nature of 
the Queen, would introduce herself as a fourth, and 
from that time on would govern the State. Although 
the plan seemed to her an admirable one, yet its 
success was not equally so." ^ 

The little conspiracy, however, had been conducted 
with great vigor. One evening, the Queen, who 
happened to be with the Duke of Bourbon, sent the 
King a request to come to her. Louis XV. com- 
plied, and the Prime Minister handed him a letter 

1 Memoirs of Duclos. 



34 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

from Cardinal de Poligiiac containing violent accu- 
sations against tlie Bishop of Fr^jus. This was the 
first time that Fleury had not been present when 
the King and the Dnke were together. Convinced 
tliat his exclusion was henceforth determined, he went 
at once to his own apartment, and after writing a very 
mournful but tender and respectful letter in which he 
took leave of his young master, he departed at once 
for the Sulpician convent at Issy. The Duke and 
Madame de Prie thought themselves sure of victory, 
but they were in too great haste to triumph. On 
reading the letter of his former preceptor the King 
began to weep. He dared not avow the cause of his 
chagrin, however, and being always timid and irreso- 
lute, he kept silence. His first gentleman, the Duke 
de Mortemart, at last emboldened him. "What! 
Sire, are you not the master ? " said he. " Have the 
Duke told to send a messenger at once for Monseign- 
eur de Fr^jus, and you will see him again." This 
was no sooner said than done. The Bishop returned, 
and hid his success at first under the appearance of 
modesty. He pretended to desire nothing for him- 
self, and showed profound deference toward the 
Duke, but the Prime Minister and his favorite were 
doomed. 

The little King, with his seventeen years, was 
about to show that he was master. With that dis- 
simulation which from infancy he had been accus- 
tomed to consider a quality indispensable to princes, 
he silently prepared the Duke's downfall. As he 



DISGRACE OF THE MARQUISE BE PRIE 35 

was getting into his carriage to go to Rambouillet, 
June 11, 1727, he said, to his Prime Minister with the 
most gracious air in the world : " I expect you to 
supper this evening." The Duke re-entered the 
chateau in perfect confidence. But what was his 
surprise when, three hours later, he received a royal 
letter in these terms : — 

" I order you, under pain of disobedience, to re- 
pair to Chantilly, and to remain there until further 
orders." This was a veritable exile. The Duke 
submitted without a murmur. At the same time, 
the Queen received this laconic billet from Louis 
XV. : " I beg you, Madame, and if necessary, I 
order you, to do all that the Bishop of Frejus shall 
tell you from me as if he were myself." The poor 
Queen wept and resigned herself. As to Madame 
de Prie, she was struck at the same time as her lover, 
and relegated to her estate of Courbepine in Nor- 
mandy. M. de Prie was startled at this disgrace. 
He went about asking people with an affectation 
which made everybody smile : •' But what is there 
in common between the Duke and my wife?" 
Those who but yesterday were at the feet of the 
Duke and his favorite now overwhelmed them with 
gibes and sarcasms. The people lighted bonfires, 
and the walls were covered with posters whereon 
might be read: "A hundred pistoles' reward for 
whoever finds a valuable mare accustomed to follow 
a one-eyed horse." ^ , 

• . 1 The Duke was blind in one eye.. 



36 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

M. Michelet, usually so severe and merciless 
toward the court of Louis XV., speaks witli a certain 
complacency of the Marquise de Prie. " Though 
history ought to be severe toward this female ty- 
rant," says he, " it is, nevertheless, a duty to own the 
vigor with which she supported the bold attempts of 
Duverne3^ This rude government, thoroughly vio- 
lent and shameless as it was, had, nevertheless, in- 
stincts of life which one may regret in the mortal 
torpor of the asphyxia which followed it." One 
hardly comprehends this indulgence, for there was 
nothing moral, nothing great in the ephemeral reign 
of the Duke and his mistress. 

It is not an easy thing for a coquettish, ambitious 
woman, accustomed to have her caprices accepted as 
laws, to endure disgrace, humiliation, and retirement. 
Madame de Prie was at first under an illusion. She 
thought she would be speedily recalled to Versailles, 
but when she saw she was mistaken, and that her 
place as lady of the palace had been given to the 
Marquise d'Arlincourt, her disappointment was cruel. 
According to M. Michelet : " She devoured her own 
heart, and could not conceal it. No caged lion or 
tiger ever was so restless. She was furious, and 
talked nonsense. She hoped to die, and later on she 
tried to kill herself by furious excesses ; but in vain. 
She lost nothing by it but her health, her freshness, 
and her beauty. In extremis she still retained a 
lover and a friend in her desert. The latter, very 
malicious, very corrupt, a real cat, was Madame du 



DISGRACE OF THE MARQUISE BE PRIE 37 

Deffand, and the two friends scratched each other 
every day between their caresses. The lover, a 
young man of merit, persisted in loving her, bad as 
she was. She was hopelessly dried up, and her last 
punishment was that she could not resume life 
through love. She was devoured by pride. She no 
longer desired anything but to die like a Roman 
woman, like Petronia." 

All this seems to us exaggerated. We believe 
Madame de Prie was too frivolous to experience such 
despair. She had not waited for her exile in order 
to know those alternations of sadness and folly which 
accompany vice even when it has the air of being 
happy. For some time, already, the taste for in- 
trigue, the thirst for pleasure, the ardor of ambition, 
had kindled in her veins a fever which undermined 
her strength. Her plumpness had been succeeded 
by an excessive lankness. Struggling against ill- 
health with extreme energy, she tried to build her- 
self up, to put a good face on everything, to shake off 
trouble, and find amusement. Though her body was 
so much weakened, says the Marquis d'Argenson, her 
mind and temper were still as gay, shrewd, merry, 
and frivolous as in the times of her greatest pros- 
perity. Even in her misfortune she had courtiers 
who deceived her. She had become ugly, and her 
flatterers continued to tell her she was adorable. 
She was hopelessly ill, and her physicians told her 
she was doing very well. Two days before her death 
she played in a comedy, and recited three hundred 



38 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

lines with as much sentiment as memory. Never- 
theless, she had predicted her approaching death. 
People thought, however, that this was but a jest, a 
pleasantry. Hence, when she breathed her last, 
October 6, 1728, after such convulsions that her toes 
were turned towards her heels, a rumor that she had 
poisoned herself got abroad. Such a suicide is im- 
probable, and not easily reconcilable with the super- 
ficial character of Madame de Prie. M. Michelet 
adds that she made a farcical confession (houffonna 
une confessio7i) — these are the expressions employed 
by an historian who is often too fanciful. What can 
M. Michelet know about it? Why does he affirm 
that she did not repent of her faults and errors? 
Greater sinners than she have been illuminated at 
the last moment by a ray of light. It is certain, at 
all events, that the sudden and terrible death of this 
young woman of only twenty-nine years, who expi- 
ated so cruelly her shameful successes, was a striking 
lesson for her contemporaries. Was Madame de 
Prie's deathbed conversion sincere ? God only 
knows. 



IV 

THE KING FAITHFUL TO THE QTJEElSr 

FOR, several years Louis XV. gave no scandal. 
Faithful to his religious duties, he lived like a 
good Christian and good husband. The courtiers, 
habituated to the manners of the Regency, did not 
conceal their surprise and annoyance. One day, in 
January, 1729, when there had been several sleighing 
excursions, old Marshal de Villars wrote: "These 
sleighing parties give the ladies some hopes that 
things are going to be rather livelier. There was 
dancing after supper, and if that happens often, it is 
not impossible that some courageous beauty may lay 
hold of the King." But this daring beauty was not 
to be found. The intimidating politeness and freez- 
ing glance of the young sovereign kept all women at 
a distance. Louis XV. did not yield. People won- 
dered whether pride or timidity, goodness or egotism, 
wisdom or ennui, was what gave its predominating 
character to his attitude of taciturnity and extreme 
reserve. 

The character of the King, who as yet did not 
know himself, was an enigma to the court. Ver- 

39 



40 TEE COURT OF LOUIS AT. 

sailles, under the direction of an aged priest, re- 
sembled an Escurial, and the small apartments 
destined to so scandalous a future had at this time 
the tranquillity of a convent or a sanctuary. If any 
one mentioned a woman famous for her beauty to the 
monarch, he would merely say : " She is not more 
beautiful than the Queen." Marie Leczinska kept 
her spouse within the bounds of duty by her ex- 
quisite goodness, her remoteness from all intrigue, 
her submissive and gentle spirit. Loving neither 
luxury nor racket, she lived like a worthy citizeness, 
charitable, modest, and entirely occupied with her 
salvation. She arrived in France in September, 
1725, and for three years she did not see Paris. A 
sort of votive pilgrimage took her there for the first 
time on October 4, 1728. She had brought twin 
daugh^-^rs into the world the previous year, Louise 
Elizabeth and Henriette of France ; this time she 
desired a son, and to obtain one from Heaven she 
came to invoke the intercession of the Blessed Vir- 
gin in the Parisian churches. Barbier, the advocate, 
thus describes in his Journal Marie Leczinska's pious 
excursion : — 

" October. — Monday, 4, our good Queen has seen 
Paris. She came to Notre Dame to ask a dauphin 
from the Virgin, and from there she went to Saint- 
Gene vi^ve with the same end in view. She made 
this journey incognita after a fashion ; that is to say, 
it was not a formal entr5^ She had only her usual 
suite, which consists of four carriages with eight 



THE KING FAITHFUL TO THE QUEEN 41 

horses apiece. ... As to the person of the Queen, 
she is little, rather slender than stout, not pretty 
without being disagreeable, and looks good-natured 
and gentle, which does not impart the majesty need- 
ful in a queen. She went about a good deal in Paris 
and saw astonishing crowds of people. They say 
that money to the extent of twelve thousand livres 
was scattered from the door of her carriage." 

Marie Leczinska's prayer was heard. The next 
year she had a son (September 4, 1729). She gave 
the King ten children in ten years (1727-1737). 
And yet there was no real intimacy between the 
married pair. During the daytime they scarcely 
addressed a word to each other. One might have 
said they never came together but from a sense of 
duty, for the welfare of the State. Cold, polite, 
reserved, they mutually intimidated each other. 

Was the Queen as clever as she ought to have 
been in order to keep Louis XV. in the straight 
path? One may be permitted to doubt it. Her 
frank and simple nature knew neither astuteness nor 
diplomacy. The secrets of feminine coquetry were 
completely foreign to her. If D'Argenson is to be 
believed, she was not adroit. He says she was too 
prudish with her husband, thinking she had noticed 
that in France it was considered in good taste to be 
so. He accuses her of overdoing the matter, and 
then lamenting her mistake with bitter tears when 
it was past all remedy. He says, too, that she did 
not do all that was in her power to make her society 



42 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

agreeable to her husband. " At the beginning of his 
marriage," he writes, " the King wanted to spend his 
evenings in the Queen's apartments, playing cards 
and chatting. The Queen, instead of attracting him 
thither, putting him at his ease, and amusing him, 
played the disdainful. Hence the King grew dis- 
gusted, accustomed himself to pass the evenings in 
his own apartments, at first with men and afterwards 
with women, his cousin Charolais, the Countess of 
Toulouse. The King is naturally very timid and 
seeks for those with whom he can be at his ease. 
When he once meets them, it is plain to what degree 
he is a man of habitudes." 

The Queen would have tried in vain to use the 
language of passion to her husband or treat him to 
jealous scenes. Louis XV. had a horror of every- 
thing that seemed to him exaggerated. In his wife's 
chagrin he would have seen a freak, a forgetfulness 
of etiquette, a want of deference. Already, in 1726, 
Marshal de Villars had recommended calmness and 
resignation to Marie Leczinska. He says in his 
Memoirs: "The Queen led me into her cabinet, and 
spoke to me with keen sorrow of the changes she 
observed in the King's affection. Her tears flowed 
abundantly. I replied : ' I think, Madame, that the 
King's heart is far removed from what is called love ; 
you are not the same with regard to him; but, believe 
me, it is best not to display your passion too much ; 
don't let any one see that you fear a diminution in 
his sentiments, lest the many fine eyes that are ogling 



THE KING FAITHFUL TO THE QUEEN 43 

him continually should risk everything in order to 
profit by this change. For the rest, it is all the better 
for you that the King's heart is not much inclined to 
tenderness, because where passion is concerned, nat- 
ural coldness is less cruel than abandonment.' " 

What is to become of this undecided, timid, vacil- 
lating king? In which direction will this young man 
go, who, like Hercules in the fable, is hesitating be- 
tween Virtue and Pleasure ? Will he be a saint or 
a debauchee ? He wants to do what is right, but 
will he have the courage ? Everything conspires to 
thrust him into the evil way. His morality is be- 
grudged him. The air he breathes is poisonous. 
The women, who incessantly provoke him, rival each 
other in glances and coquetries. His former pre- 
ceptor, now become directing minister, dares not 
venture a counsel. His first valet de chamhre, Bache- 
lier, already dreams of playing the pander, and great 
lords, with the Duke de Richelieu at their head, 
likewise aspire to those sorry but lucrative functions. 
Who would dare to reprimand the monarch if he 
gave a scandalous example ? The clergy hold their 
peace. The nobles demand but one thing from the 
King : to choose his mistress among women of qual- 
ity. Shame needs a blazon. The bourgeoisie will be 
too prudent to meddle with the secrets of the gods. 
D'Argenson and Barbier, the nobleman and the advo- 
cate, will rival each other in indulgent judgments on 
adultery. 

In D'Argenson's eyes the sole fault of favorites is 



44 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

their propensity to meddle with State affairs. He 
adds: "I approve of private persons confiding in a 
mistress in whose affection they believe ; it makes 
little scandal, and is even edification and honesty, 
according to the present relaxation of manners, 
which are coming closer and closer to nature." Bar- 
bier, the lawyer, goes farther still. He says in his 
Journal., with an astonishing mixture of cynicism 
and naivete : " Fifteen out of twenty nobles of the 
court do not live with their wives, and do have mis- 
tresses ; nothing is so common even among private 
persons. It is ridiculous, then, that the King, who 
is certainly the master, should be in worse condition 
than his predecessors." 

The courtiers could not accustom themselves to 
the absence of a royal mistress. It seemed to them 
as if there was a place vacant, a post to which some 
one ought to be appointed. How could any one 
fancy Henri IV. without la belle Grabrielle, Louis 
XIV. without La Valli^re and Montespan? And 
what ! said they with indignation, shall Louis XV. 
confine himself to his wife, that Polish woman with- 
out beauty, and seven years older than himself? In 
their eyes this would* be to derogate from all the 
traditions of French gallantry. The military men, 
impatient of peace, fancied that a favorite might be 
an Agnes Sorel, who would rouse this new Charles 
VIII. from his torpor, and lead him to victory. Fash- 
ionable young people were persuaded that Versailles 
would become animated, that there would be feasts, 
suppers, diversions, pleasures of every kind. 



THE KING FAITHFUL TO THE QUEEN 45 

The enemies of Cardinal Fleury, all those in 
search of places, money, or credit, thought that a 
mistress would bring about the downfall of the old 
minister, so careful of the State funds. Ah ! if the 
monarch yields, if he succumbs to temptation, the 
guilty ones will be the counsellors, the cynical, cor- 
rupt egotists, who persuade him to evil, who deify 
his caprices, who exalt his adulteries ; they will be 
Richelieu, the official go-between ; Voltaire, the laure- 
ate in prose and verse of the reign of the favorites ; 
the women who entreat the Christian Sultan to 
throw them the handkerchief ; the entire century, 
still more responsible and blameworthy than the 
King. 



THE FAVOR OF THE COUNTESS DE MAILLY 

THERE are two kinds of royal favorites : the 
proud and the humble ; those who make a boast 
of scandal and those who blush at it. The proud 
brag of their shame as if it were a victory ; insatiable 
for money, credit, pleasures, they are intoxicated with 
the incense burned at their feet, and haughtily wave 
the sceptre of left-handed queens. The humble are 
less unreasonable ; they voluntarily abase them- 
selves; they try to gain pardon for a situation 
whose ignominy they comprehend, and though they 
have not sufficient moral sense to be willing to re- 
nounce the profits of their rOle, neither have they 
the impudence to make an imperious demand of 
homage and adulation. At the court of Louis XIV. 
Madame de Montespan was the type of the haughty 
mistress. The first mistress of Louis XV., the 
Countess de Mailly, must be classed among the 
humble ones. 

Louise Julie de Mailly-Nesle, the eldest of five 
sisters who all played a part at court, was of the 
same age as the King: like him she was born in 

46 



THE FAVOR OF THE COUNTESS BE MAILLY 47 

1710. Married in 1726 to Count Louis Alexandre 
de Mailly, her cousin-german, her fortune was small, 
and the need of money was said to be one occasion 
of her faults. The huntsman Le Roy, that master 
of the hunt who was so sagacious an observer, and 
whom Sainte-Beuve has qualified as La Bruy^re 
on horseback, thus delineates the portrait of the 
countess : " This lady was very far from being 
pretty ; but her figure and her manners were very 
graceful, her sensibility was already recognized, and 
she had a complaisant character adapted to the 
abridgment of formalities. This was essential to 
vanquish the timidity of a prince who was still a 
novice, whom the least reserve would have abashed. 
They were sure, moreover, of the disinterestedness 
of her who was destined to become the favorite, and 
of her aversion from all ambitious schemes. Some 
difficulty was experienced in establishing a complete 
familiarity between a prince excessively timid and a 
woman whose birth, at least, obliged her to have 
some regard for appearances." Madame de Mailly 
was lady of the palace to the Queen. This facili- 
tated matters. At first everything was managed 
with the utmost secrecy. "I have learned," says 
the Duke de Luynes in his Memoirs, "that the 
commerce of the King with Madame de Mailly com- 
menced as early as 1733. I know this to be true 
beyond all doubt, and at that time no one suspected 
it." 

The favor of the King's mistress was not known to 



48 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the public until four years later, and the advocate 
Barbier declared " that there was nothing to say, tlie 
name of De Nesle being one of the first in the king- 
dom." " The Queen," says D'Argenson, " is in a 
cruel situation at present, on account of Madame de 
Mailly, whom she is obliged to retain as lady of the 
palace. Daring this lady's weeks she is in a horrible 
humor, and all her domestics feel the effects of it. 
Certainly, to make a third after supper, between her 
and Madame de Mailly, is to render her a great ser- 
vice." The poor Queen at last resigned herself. 
When a woman no longer appeals to either a man's 
heart or his senses, what can she do ? One day 
when Madame de Mailly asked her sovereign's per- 
mission to go to a pleasure-house where Louis XV. 
was, Marie Leczinska merely replied : " You are the 
mistress." 

Cardinal Fleury did not complain, because the 
favorite neither meddled with affairs nor cost the 
King much. At this time Louis XV. was as eco- 
nomical as he was timid. Count de Mailly, who had 
set up an equipage as soon as his wife came into 
favor, was soon obliged to sell it again, and con- 
tinued to live a needy life. 

In 1738, when Madame de Mailly was openly ac- 
knowledged as mistress, Louis XV. changed his 
bedchamber. He left that where Louis XIV. had 
died, and which he had himself occupied since 1722, 
to install himself in the chamber contiguous to the 
Council hall, and which, even in the time of Louis 



THE FAVOR OF THE COUNTESS BE MAILLY 49 

XIV., had been designated as the billiard room 
(room No. 126 of the Notice du Afusee de Versailles, 
by M. Eudore Souli^). 

Louis XV. found this chamber more convenient 
than the other, because it opened the series of small 
rooms called the cabinets (rooms Nos. 126 to 134 of 
the Notice i), where Louis XV. admitted a very 
small number of courtiers to his intimacy. It was 
there he hid himself from the vulgar crowd ; there 
that, living more like a private person than a king, 
he spent his time in trifles and futilities unworthy 
of a sovereign. There he made tapestry like a 
woman, or, like a cook, prepared side-dishes with 
truffles. There, supping after the chase, he sought 
forgetfulness of his remorse in bumpers of cham- 
pagne. It was there he sought a remedy for his, 
alas ! incurable melancholy ; there that he allowed 
himself to be vanquished by his enemy, voluptuous- 
ness. 

Beneath the King's chamber lodged the Countess 
de Toulouse, widowed within a year of the son of 
Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. The coun- 
tess occupied the apartment called the apartment of 
the baths, which, after having been the abode of 
Madame de Montespan, had been given to the sons 
of the celebrated favorite, first to the Duke du Maine, 
and afterward to the Count de Toulouse (rooms Nos. 

1 The chamber of Louis XV. and the cabinets are now used as 
the apartment of the President of the National Assembly. 



50 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

52, 53, and 54 of the Notice du Miis^e). This apart- 
ment had one great advantage : it communicated 
by a private staircase with the King's study. The 
Count de Toulouse had the kej^ to this precious 
staircase. His widow had sufiicient address to in- 
duce the King to leave it with her. She was at this 
time a woman of about fifty, who no longer wore 
rouge, and often spent several hours in a confessional 
in the chapel, where she read by the light of a can- 
dle. In spite of her austere appearance, she was the 
intimate friend of the Countess de Mailly, and slan- 
derous tongues accused her of facilitating the latter's 
meetino-s with the Kino-. 

Another woman also lived in close friendship with 
Louis XV. This was Mademoiselle de Charolais, 
who was born in 1695 and died in 1758 unmarried. 
A sister of tlie Duke of Bourbon, she had the hauteur 
of the Condes and the wit of the Mortemarts. She 
was a type of the extravagant grande dame, a capri- 
cious, witty woman, greedy for pleasure, frolicsome 
as an elf, and fearless as a page. " This princess is 
very accommodating to the King," says the Marquis 
d'Argenson ; " she keeps company with Madame de 
Mailly, and, in the midst of her complaisance, she 
sometimes proposes to the King to take a prettier 
mistress. At other times she advises Madame de 
Mailly to profit by her reign, and secure all the riches 
and grandeur that she can. . . . Madame de Mailly 
is honest and well-intentioned, and confides in her. 
This is what sustains her, in spite of her lighthearted- 



THE FAVOli OF THE COUNTESS BE 21 A ILLY 51 

ness, her temper, and the variety of opinions which 
torment her. But as she is noble in the midst of her 
necessities, her demands are not acrimonious nor her 
intrigues underhanded and circuitous." 

Among the iniiuential persons surrounding the 
King let us not forget his iirst valet de chamhn\ 
Bachelier, the master's contidant ; Bachelier with his 
occult power, his lifty thousand pounds of income, 
his charming property of La Celle, which the sov- 
ereign honors by visiting. Listen again to D'Ar- 
genson : " Le sieur Baclielier is a philosopher, well 
content Avith his fortune, Avhich is a good one. He 
has an income, a country house, and a mistress. He 
loves his master and is loved by him ; he desires the 
public welfare. People of this character are difficult 
to displace ; it is this also wliich accounts for the 
force and elevation of our cardinal, and, fortunately 
for France, the King likes men of this sort. It is 
true that Bachelier is still a go-between '' (D'Ar- 
genson employs a stronger word). "But his office 
allows this, just as that of a soldier permits him to 
be a slayer of men. Perhaps it is he who prescribed 
to the King to limit himself to a single mistress, as 
he has done up to the present with little Mailly; or 
to seldom change them, and not to be prodigal of 
money or power." 

Nothing great could issue from such a society. 
This voluptuous existence, parodied without poetry 
or enthusiasm from the scenes of Lancret and Wat- 
teau, belittled and atrophied the moral sense of the 



52 THE COURT OF LOUIS XT. 

King. Wliat could he learn from a futile and idle 
woman like Madame de Mailly, entirely devoted to 
trifles and her toilet? Listening^ from morninp- to 
night to silly and insignificant tittle-tattle, Louis 
XV. himself became womanish. His preoccupations 
were mean, his ideas narrow. He interested himself 
in petty gossip unworthy of a king, unworthy of a 
man. Madame de Mailly had neither wit enough to 
amuse him nor tact enough to lead him. After 
awhile she wearied him. He kept her near him, 
however, while looking about for her successor. 



VI 



THE COUNTESS DE VINTIMILLE 

IN 1738, the Countess de Mailly had been for five 
years the mistress of Louis XV., or, rather, his 
slave. She no longer pleased him, and only the 
lingering force of habit made him tolerate her. He 
was so bored that Madame de Mailly vt^ished to 
divert him at any cost. She had a sister younger 
than herself, Pauline Felicity, who had completed 
her education, but still remained at the convent for 
economical reasons. The young girl, who was not 
at all religiously inclined, considered herself a pris- 
oner. She champed at her bit. Witty, ambitious, 
burning to play a part, the splendors of the chateau 
of Versailles constantly appealed to her imagination. 
" I, also, would like to amuse myself." The good- 
natured Mailly was not alarmed by the thought of a 
rival. She supposed her sister would be a precious 
ally, and that since a new-comer was absolutely nec- 
essary in the cabinets, it would be better that this 
new-comer should belong to the De Nesle family. 
Felicity would dispel the King's melancholy. The 
little suppers would no longer have a funereal air. 

53 



54 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Louis XV. would cheer up ; the situation would be 
saved. Madame de Mailly showed the King the 
beseeching letters in which her young sister spoke 
of Versailles as an Eldorado, the kingdom of her 
dreams. To be summoned to court seemed to her 
supreme happiness. Louis XV., flattered by so 
ardent a desire, granted it. Mademoiselle de Nesle 
arrived at Versailles in December, 1738, and acted 
at first as her sister's companion. She pleased the 
King at once by her more than lively character and 
her school-girlish good-humor. She was present at 
all the parties and suppers, and it appears that 
Louis XV. made her his mistress in 1739. He 
thought afterwards of finding her a husband. 

The sovereign who thus glided over the declivity 
of scandal was, nevertheless, not without remorse, 
and his melancholy increased along with his vices. 
When the Holy Week of 1739 arrived, he felt a 
secret anguish which troubled him profoundly. 
This remark of Massillon's was realized : " The crime 
which you pursue with such appetite, afterwards pur- 
sues you like a cruel vulture, fastening upon and 
rending your heart to punish you for the pleasure 
it has given you." ^ 

Corrupt as he was, Louis XV. had faith. He 
suffered, because he acted against his conscience, 
and his conscience spoke louder than all his flat- 
terers. The more adulation they gave him the 

1 Massillon, Sermon on I'Evidence de la loi. 



THE COUNTESS DE VINTIMILLE 55 

more (dissatisfied was he with himself. Nothing is 
so sad as the condition of a man Avho believes but 
does not practise, who is present at divine service, 
who kneels before the altar, who prays or tries to 
pray, and yet who does not amend his life. The 
ceremonies of religion, so touching and poetic, are 
then no longer consolations. They are torments. 
Remorse pursues him everywhere. The chants of 
the Church, if they are sad, increase his disquietude. 
If they are joyous, their gladness brings them into 
contrast with the bitterness of his heart. The soul 
feels that it can nevermore rejoice. Occasionally 
he conceives a horror of the woman who turns him 
from his duty ; she appears to him for Avhat she is : 
his enemy, his bad angel. Then the habit of vice 
resumes its sway. Remorse is stilled for awhile. 
Holy Week has gone by. But the wound remains 
at the bottom of his heart, profound, incurable. 

Louis XV. dared not communicate in 1739. He 
had been told of sacrilegious men, Avho, receiving 
the Host in their mouths, and thus "eating and 
drinking their own damnation," had fallen stiff and 
dead. This made him reflect, and when the grand 
provost asked whether he would touch for the king's 
evil, which the Kings of France cannot do until 
after they have received Communion, he drily 
answered: No. A King of France who does not 
make his Easter duty, a son of St. Louis who con- 
ducts himself like a disciple of Voltaire, what a 
scandal ! Concerning this, Barbier the advocate, 



56 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

writes in his Journal : " It is dangerous for a king 
to give such an example to his people ; we are on 
good enough terms with the Pope for the Son of the 
Church to have a dispensation to make his Easter 
communion, no matter in what state he is, without 
sacrilege and with a safe conscience." Strange man- 
ner of comprehending religion ! The impression 
made on the court was deplorable in this century 
apparently so incredulous. D'Argenson himself af- 
firms this. He says : " They tried to hide the inde- 
cency by a Low Mass which Cardinal de Rohan 
should say in the cabinet of the King, P^re de 
Lini^res being present; the fact that His Majesty 
had not presented himself either at the tribunal of 
Penance or to receive the Eucharist would be care- 
fully concealed." 

Some months later (September 23, 1739) the King 
arranged a marriage for Mademoiselle de Nesle. He 
had her espouse the Count de Vintimille, and 
deigned to give the husband the bridal shirt with 
his own royal hand. This was the first time that 
Louis XV. had thus honored any one. Madame de 
Vintimille was the only woman to whom he gave 
any presents on New Year's Day, 1740. But the 
new favorite was not much the richer for them. 
The monarch, afterwards so prodigal, was at this 
time more than economical. The countess applied 
to him at least half of what was said of the Czar 
Peter when he was in France : " He makes love like 
a street-porter, and pays in the same way." The 



THE COUNTESS BE VINTIMILLE 57 

Marquis de Nesle, father of the royal mistresses, 
remained in a very embarrassed pecuniary position ; 
in November, 1739, he had been suddenly banished 
to Lisieux, in spite of the credit of his daughters, 
for having spoken scornfully of " his vs^retched suit 
against his wretched creditors." D'Argenson grows 
indignant at such severity. He says: "They will 
have it that the King has performed a Roman action, 
worthy of Manlius Torquatus and Brutus, in punish- 
ing severely his natural and actual father-in-law for 
a slight offence given to a simple member of the 
council. This has astonished everybody, for, as a 
matter of fact, one puts himself under obligations in 
love, especially when one is king, and has a continu- 
ous attachment for one of his subjects." 

At the close of 1740, Madame de Vintimille 
became pregnant. People said that Louis XV. had 
more than one reason to be interested in the favor- 
ite's condition. Perhaps he fancied that he was 
going to taste family joys along with her. Vain 
hope. Apart from pure sentiments and legitimate 
affections there are only disappointments and cha- 
grins. Madame de Vintimille was brought to bed 
with a boy in August, 1741. The King went three 
or four times a day to inquire about her. He em- 
braced the child with transports. The mother seemed 
at the height of favor. But the chastisement of 
Heaven overtook the fault at once. Madame de 
Vintimille was seized with miliary fever, and died 
September 9, in atrocious torments, without having 



58 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

had time to receive the sacraments. Louis XV. was 
dismayed. He felt himself guilty of this death in 
the sight of God and men. The lover had involun- 
tarily been the executioner. He felt himself over- 
whelmed by the weight of an implacable malediction, 
and, horrified at himself, he besought pardon of the 
dead woman and of God. If he tried to speak, sobs 
impeded his utterance and he relapsed into silence. 
Sick and despairing in his bed, he had Mass said in 
his chamber, and people began to wonder whether he 
would not seek a remedy for his remorse in asceti- 
cism. Madame de Mailly, forgetting the rival in 
the sister, went to pray every day beside Madame 
de Vintimille's tomb, and it was in memory of his 
second mistress that Louis XV. returned to the first 
one. She had the advantage of being able to weep 
with him, and he could make her the confidant of 
his grief. 



VII 



THE DISGRACE OF THE COUNTESS DE MAILLY 

LOUIS XV. wept for Madame de Vintimille in 
company with Madame de Mailly. But those 
wlio tliought him inconsolable little knew his char- 
acter ; his schemes of conversion were but passing 
caprices. He had not force enough to break the long 
chain of his iniquities. He was not merely not 
recalled to well-doing by the lamentable death of 
Madame de Vintimille, but he fell back into the 
paths of scandal with a promptitude which had not 
even the excuse of passion. 

Madame de Mailly was still the acknowledged 
favorite, but the King had not loved her for a long 
time. She spent another year at court after the 
death of Madame de Vintimille. This was a year 
of sorrow, humiliations, and afflictions. Louis XV. 
caused the poor deserted woman to drink the chalice 
of bitterness to the dregs, and made her so unhappy 
that even the Queen took pity on her. 

What is more lamentable than the last agonies of 
love ? To perceive that one has been mistaken ; 
that the being one has thought good, generous, and 

59 



60 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

grateful is wicked, perfidious, and ungrateful ; to find 
hardness instead of mildness, egotism instead of de- 
votion ; what an awakening ! what a torture ! And 
one cannot complain. Morality, decorum, religion, 
all command silence. If you groan, the world scoffs 
at you. Your afflictions obtain scorn and not com- 
passion. You cannot confess your sorrow before 
either God or men. The being who persecutes and 
outrages you, who betrays and kills you, is still be- 
loved, and this love, alas ! is only a folly, a weakness. 
You humble yourself, you crawl, you cringe. And 
all that avails you nothing. Your cause is lost. 
Nothing is left you but to suffer and to die. 

Such was the destiny of Madame de Mailly. To 
lose the heart of the King was not enough. It was 
reserved to her to find not merely a rival but a per- 
secutor in her own sister, Madame de la Tournelle. 

Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, afterwards so well- 
known under the title of Duchess de Chateauroux, 
was the fifth and youngest daughter of the Marquis de 
Nesle. Born in 1717, she married, in 1734, the Mar- 
quis de la Tournelle, an extremely pious young man, 
who spent the greater part of his modest fortune in 
alms. Becoming a widow in 1740, at the age of 
twenty-two, she took refuge with her relative, the 
Duchess de Mazarin, lady of the bedchamber to the 
Queen, who died two years later. Madame de Tour- 
nelle was again on the point of being without an asy- 
lum. But the King had already remarked her beauty. 
She was appointed lady of the palace to the Queen 



DISGRACE OF THE COUNTESS BE MAILLY 61 

(September, 1742). M. de Maurepas and Cardinal 
Fleury, who disliked lier and already had a presenti- 
ment that she would be their all-powerful eneni}'-, 
made ruthless war upon her. But she had for adviser 
the most audacious and wily of all the courtiers of 
Louis XV., the Duke de Richelieu. 

The Marquis d'Argenson draws the following 
portrait of this personage, so celebrated in the erotic 
annals of the eighteenth century: — 

" He carries too far the opinion one ought to have 
of the defects of the monarchy and the feebleness of 
our epoch. . . . He has made himself talked of ever 
since he was twelve years old. He has been put into 
the Bastille three times for three causes capable of 
making a court hero illustrious : for having made 
love to the Dauphiness, the King's mother ; for a 
duel, and for a consj)iracy against the State. His 
love for voluptuous pleasures has ostentation rather 
than actual enjoyment as its end. . . . He is very 
much the mode among women ; the pretensions and 
jealousies of coquettes have procured him many 
favors. There is never any passion in him but 
plenty of debauchery. He has betrayed a feeble 
sex ; he has taken the senses for the heart. He is 
not fortunate enough to possess a friend. He is 
frank through thoughtlessness, suspicious through 
subtlety and contempt of mankind, disobliging 
through insensibility and misanthropy. Such is the 
sorry model copied by a gay and inconsiderate 
nation like ours." 



62 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The Duke de Richelieu intended to reign under 
cover of Madame de la Tournelle, whose guide and 
inspirer he had become. This affair roused his en- 
thusiasm. Pushing even to lyricism his sorry r81e of 
intermediary, he exclaimed, in an excess of zeal : " I 
mean that any one who shall enter Madame de la 
Tournelle's antechamber shall be more highly con- 
sidered than one who might have been in private 
conversation with Madame de Mailly." ^ 

The new favorite made conditions before yielding 
to the King. Proud and imperious, like most beau- 
tiful and flattered women, she required guarantees, 
and transformed a so-called affair of the heart into a 
diplomatic negotiation. " Love," says La Rochefou- 
cauld, " lends its name to an infinite number of rela- 
tions attributed to it, but with which it has no more 
to do than the Doge with what goes on at Venice." 
Madame de la Tournelle did not love, she calculated. 
More peremptory than Madame de Vintimille, who 
had tolerated a partnership with Madame de Mailly, 
she determined to reign alone. What she bargained 
for was not simply money and consideration but the 
banishment of her sister. But this was not easy to 
be obtained. The idea of quitting Versailles afflicted 
Madame de Mailly. She made herself so humble, so 
modest, so resigned, so submissive, that Louis XV. 
felt unable to dismiss her. From time to time he 
still felt for her certain returns if not of attachment 

1 Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes. 



DISGRACE OF THE COUNTESS BE MAILLY 63 

at least of compassion. He would have liked to keep 
near him, as a faithful servant, this poor woman, 
whose gentleness and kindness he could not refuse to 
acknowledge. But Madame de la Tournelle was 
inflexible. She had signified her intention not to 
become the mistress of the King until after Madame 
de Mailly should have been irrevocably driven from 
the court. 

Weakness makes men cruel. Louis XV., ordina- 
rily affable and kind, was about to be severe beyond 
measure towards his former mistress. She thought 
to move him by immolating herself, and resigning her 
place (November, 1742) as lady of the palace to the 
Queen in favor of her sister, Madame de Flavacourt, 
who stood well with Madame de la Tournelle. But 
this sacrifice did not touch the cold heart of the King, 
and he took pleasure in reducing to despair the 
woman whose love had become embarrassing and 
tiresome. 

The Duke de Luynes does not disguise his sympathy 
for the fallen favorite. " Her condition," he says, 
" is all the more worthy of compassion, because she 
really loves the King, and is as zealous for his glory 
as she is attached to his person. She has many 
friends, and deservedly, for she has never done any 
harm, and, on the contrary, has been anxious to be of 
service. . . . They pretend that the King said to 
her some days ago : ' I have promised you to speak 
plainly with you. I am madly in love with Madame 
de la Tournelle.' Madame de la 'Tournelle says she 



64 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

is loved by M. d'Agenois, and that she loves him, 
and has no desire to have the King ; that he would 
please her by letting her alone, and that she will 
never consent to his proposals but on sure and ad- 
vantageous conditions." 

Everybody pitied Madame de Mailly: Cardinal 
Fleury because she had never meddled with politics ; 
women because she was not beautiful ; courtiers 
because she had been serviceable. The Queen was 
not one of the least affected. She displayed great 
good- will toward a mistress who had had as much 
modesty as tact. " The Queen," says the Duke de 
Luynes, "seems to sympathize with Madame de 
Mailly's situation, and to desire that she shall be 
well treated." 

D'Argenson is indignant with the faithless mon- 
arch. The previous year he had been unwilling to 
believe in the double passion of Louis XV. for 
Madame de Mailly and Madame de Vintimille. 
He wrote at the time : " They are the two most 
"united sisters that ever were seen. . . . What likeli- 
hood is there that they could remain friends if tliey 
were disputing the possession of a heart so illustri- 
ous and precious ? , . . But people are never will- 
ing to believe anything but evil." At this period, 
D'Argenson did not doubt the sincerity of his mas- 
ter's remorse. " The death of Madame de Vinti- 
mille," said he, "will bring back the King to the 
practice of religion. . . . He will come in the end to 
living with Madame de Mailly as the Duke, they 



mSGBACE OF THE COUNTESS BE MAILLY 65 

say, lived with Madame d'Egmont, simply as a 
friend^ relapsing, if at all, only by accident, and 
then going quickly to confession. . . . He has a heart 
which makes itself heard. How few of his subjects 
have such a one at present ! He is grateful for the 
sincere attachment shown towards him. He likes 
kind hearts ; he is, perhaps, destined to be the de- 
light of the world." 

A year later, the Marquis is furious at having 
been duped. "Great news!" he exclaims. "The 
King has dismissed Madame de Mailly in order to 
take her sister, Madame de la Tournelle. This was 
done with inconceivable harshness on the part of the 
Most Christian King. It is the sister who drives 
away the sister; she demands her exile, and the 
taking of this third sister as a mistress makes many 
people believe that the second one, Madame de Vin- 
timille, went the same way. I, for my part, have 
always maintained that the King's extreme sensi- 
bility at the death of Madame de Vintimille was a 
praiseworthy sentiment toward the sister of his 
friend, whose marriage he had himself arranged. 
But farewell to virtuous sensibility ! So he de- 
ceived his mistress, he bound Madame de Vintimille 
to ingratitude ! He considers the child she left as 
his son, and often has it brought secretly to his 
room. It is all cleared up, then. Who has the 
third sister must have had the second." 

Madame de Mailly made no further attempt at 
resistance. "My sacrifices are consummated," she 



66 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

exclaimed ; " I shall die of them ; but this evening 
I shall be in Paris." She actually departed, in tears 
and despairing, almost frenzied, in November, 1742. 
The King wrote letter after letter to her to tell her — 
could one believe it ? — about his love for Madame de 
la Tournelle. This time, he said, he was "fixed for- 
ever, Madame de la Tournelle having all the mind 
necessary to make her charming." The fickle sov- 
ereign congratulated himself in this more than 
strange correspondence on "the general applause 
given to his choice." 

The new favorite triumphed with a barbarous joy. 
The De Goncourt brothers, in their well-written and 
interesting book on the Mistresses of Louis XV.} 
have given the curious letter she wrote at this time 
to the Duke de Richelieu, her confidant : — 

" Surely Meuse must have let you know what 
trouble I have had to oust Madame de Mailly ; at 
last I have managed to have her sent away not to 
come back again. You fancy perhaps that the affair 
is ended? Not at all; he is beside himself with 
grief, and does not write me a letter without speaking 
of it, and begging me to let her return, and he will 
never approach her, but only ask me to see her some- 
times. I have just received one in which he says 
that if I refuse I shall soon be rid of both her and 
him; meaning, apparently, that they will both die 



1 Les Maitresses de Louis XF., par Edraond et Jules de Gon- 
court. 2 vols. Firinin-Didot. 



DISGBACE OF THE COUNTESS DE MA ILLY 67 

of chagrin. As it would by no means suit me to 
have her here, I mean to be firm. , . . The King has 
sent you word that the affair is concluded between 
us, for he tells me, in this morning's letter, to unde- 
ceive you, because he is unwilling to have you think 
anything beyond the truth. It is true that, when 
he wrote you, he counted on its being concluded this 
evening; but I put some difficulties in the way of 
that which I do not repent of." 

Before the close of the year, the affair was settled. 
Madame de Mailly, after many tears and supplica- 
tions, recognized that she was beaten. The King 
paid her debts, and granted her a pension of ten 
thousand livres in addition to the twelve thousand 
she had already, and furnished a house for her in 
Paris, rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, where she es- 
tablished herself. Thenceforward, Madame de la 
Tournelle fulfilled, uncontested and without a rival, 
the official functions of King's mistress. 



VIII 

THE EEIGN OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUKOUX 

IF Louis XV. is a degenerate Louis XIV., his 
mistresses are likewise inferior to those of the 
great King. Madame de Mailly, spite of her mild- 
ness and her repentance, is not a La Valliere. Though 
Madame de la Tournelle may become Duchess de 
Ch^teauroux, she will never be a Montespan, not- 
withstanding her ambition and her arrogance. She 
is doubtless pretty ; her big blue eyes, her dazzling 
white skin, her expression both passionate and arch, 
make a charming woman of her. But she is not a 
mistress "thundering and triumphant," as Madame 
de Sevign^ said of Madame de Montespan; she is not 
that type of favorite who is " good to display before 
the ambassadors." In spite of her high birth, and 
her schemes for domination, there will always be 
something mean about her, and the same is true, of 
Louis XV. himself. 

She had scarcely become the royal mistress when 
Cardinal Fleury died (January, 1743). When 
Mazarin died, Louis XIV. had said : At last I am 
King. Louis XV. will content himself with saying : 

68 



BEIGN OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUROUX 69 

Now I am prime minister. He need no longer dread 
his former preceptor's lessons on morality and parsi- 
mony. He is the master. But he does not at once 
renounce his economical habits, and at first Madame 
de la Tournelle has trouble in extracting money 
from him. "It must be owned," writes the Duke 
de Luynes in April, 1743, " that the present arrange- 
ment does not resemble what was announced at the 
commencement of Madame de la Tournelle's favor. 
. . . They said she would make no engagement un- 
less she were assured of a house of her own, her provi- 
sions, means to entertain people, and a carriage for 
her private use, being unwilling to use those of the 
King. It is true, she does not use these, but she has 
none of her own ; hence, she never goes out, though 
she is fond of spectacles." 

She ended by making her lover less miserly. In 
October, 1743, he gave her an excellent cook, an 
equerry, a berline, six carriage horses, and, finally, 
the title of Duchess de Ch§,teauroux, with an estate 
bringing an income of eighty-five thousand livres. 
The letters patent were worded as follows : " The 
right to confer titles of honor and dignity being one 
of the most sublime attributes of supreme power, the 
kings, our predecessors, have left to us divers monu- 
ments of the use they have made of it in favor of 
persons whose virtues and merit they desired to 
make illustrious. . . . Considering that our very 
dear and well-beloved cousin, Marie Anne de Mailly, 
widow of the Marquis de la Tournelle, issues from 



70 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

one of the greatest families of our realm, allied to 
our own and to the most ancient in Europe ; that for 
several centuries her ancestors have rendered great 
and important services to our crown; that she is 
attached as lady of the palace to the Queen, our 
very dear companion, and that she joins to these 
advantages all the virtues and the most excellent 
qualities of heart and mind which have gained for 
her a just esteem and universal consideration, we 
have thought proper to give her the duchy of Cha~ 
teauroux, Avith its appurtenances and dependencies, 
situated in Berry." 

Parliament was assembled to record these letters 
patent. " The assembly," says the Marquis d'Argen- 
son, " has listened gravely to all these flowers of 
speech which the monarch presents to his mistress, 
and has decided on the registration." Barbier, that 
faithful echo of contemporary public opinion, makes 
certain observations on the subject in his journal 
which are not altogether lacking in malice. " These 
letters," says he, " are very honorable for the Mailly 
family. The King declares that it is one of the 
greatest and finest illustrious houses of the realm, 
allied to his own and to the most ancient of Europe. 
One reflection occurs at once : it is surprising that 
no one has yet decorated the males with the title of 
duke, and that this celebrity begins with the women. 
There might be something to criticise in the pream- 
ble to the letters ; present circumstances considered, 
the author has not been prudent; the crying them 



BEIGN OF THE DUCHESS BE CHATEAUROUX 71 

through the streets might also have been dispensed 
with, it having given occasion for talk." 

Behold Madame de la Tournelle Duchess de Cha- 
teauroux. She is officially presented in this quality 
to the Queen, who says to her, in a kindly way: 
" Madame, I compliment you on the grace accorded 
to you by the King." The Duke de Richelieu is 
rewarded for his zeal by the post of first gentleman 
of the chamber. The new duchess thrones it at 
Versailles. She keeps two of her sisters near her, 
the Marquise de Flavacourt, who is, like herself, one 
of the Queen's ladies of the palace, and the Duchess 
de Lauraguais, of whom she makes an assiduous 
companion. Neither of them is pretty enough to 
make her jealous. She uses them as allies. Louis 
XV. isolates himself in the society of these three 
women, who have combined to keep him under the 
yoke. He amuses himself by giving them nick- 
names. He calls Madame de Flavacourt the Hen, 
on account of her frightened air, and the Duchess 
de Lauraguais la Rue des Mauvaises-Paivles, on 
account of her caustic speeches. 

Could anything great or noble proceed from this 
coterie? Is it true, that, as the Goncourts have 
said, " Madame de Chateauroux unites the energies 
and ambitions of a Longueville to the ardors and 
haughty insolence of a Montespan ? " Is it true 
that in her pride, her impatience, the fever of her 
desires, the activity of her projects, the passion of 
her spirit, she has the fire of a " Fronde as well as the 



72 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

soul of a great reign ? " We do not believe it. To 
judge from the Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes, so 
impartial a witness, so exact a narrator, the Duchess 
de Chateauroux was not a political woman, and still 
less a heroine. He depicts her as dull, indolent, 
taciturn, bored. " She and her sister," he says, 
" spend the day in an armchair ; and except in her 
week, Madame de Lauraguais generally goes out for 
the first time at eight or nine o'clock in the evening. 
. . . The King is with the two sisters as often as pos- 
sible, and it appears that there is never any question 
of important matters between the three. Madame 
de Mailly would not have been so indifferent." 

And yet France had been at war with Austria 
since 1741, and England since 1742, and people 
were amazed that Louis XV., then in his prime, had 
not yet put himself at the head of his troops. One 
must do him the justice to admit that he was brave, 
and that, like all his ancestors, he had the sentiment 
of military honor. He comprehended that longer 
inaction on his part would be inexcusable, and that 
his place was with the army. Marshal de Noailles, 
whom he had chosen for his private adviser, at last 
decided him on making his first campaign. But not 
-(vithout difficulty. Louis XV. hesitated for more 
lihan a year, and the dread of leaving his mistress 
for several days was not one of the least causes of 
his perplexity. The Marshal tried to appeal to the 
royal instincts of his master. "France," he wrote 
him, "has never beheld reigns fortunate for the 



BEIGN OF THE DUCHESS OF GHATEAUROUX 73 

people nor veritably glorious for the kings, except 
those in which they governed by themselves. . . . 
A king is never so great as when he is at the 
head of his armies." ^ On his side, Louis XV. wrote 
to the Marshal, July 24, 1743 : " I can assure you 
I have an extreme desire to know for myself a pro- 
fession my fathers have practised so well." And 
August 9 : "If they are going to devour my country, 
it will be very hard for me to see it crunched with- 
out personally doing my utmost to prevent it." 

It was believed the King was at last going to 
set off ; but the Duchess de Chateauroux wanted to 
be able to follow him. Far from comprehending 
how ridiculous the presence of a court of women 
would seem to the army, she intrigued to obtain a 
favorable opinion of the strange desire she cherished 
from her friend, the Marshal de Noailles. In a 
letter dated September 3, 1743, she said to him: 
"I agree that the King should start for the army: 
there is not a moment to lose, and it should be done 
promptly ; what is to become of me ? Would it be 
impossible for my sister and me to follow him, and 
if we cannot go to the army with him, at least to 
post ourselves where we can hear from him every 
day? ... I think it well to tell you that I have 
asked the King to let me write you concerning this, 
and that I do so with his approbation." 



1 Correspondence of Louis XV. and the Marshal de Noailles, 
published by M. Camille Eousset. 2 vols. Dumont. 



74 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

Evidently Louis XV. was not going to make a 
campaign without his mistress. Nevertheless, the 
Duke de Noailles was frank enough to reply to the 
favorite : " I do not think, madame, that you can 
follow the King with madame, your sister. You, 
yourself, feel the inconveniences of it, since you 
afterwards reduce your demands to asking whether 
you could not come to some town near enough to 
receive daily news from His Majesty. ... I cannot 
avoid telling you that both the King and yourself 
would need some plausible reason to justify such a 
step in the eyes of the public." The result of this 
letter was to defer, the military inclinations of the 
monarch. He gave up the autumn campaign of 
1743, and did not start for the seat of war until the 
following spring. May 2, 1744. 



IX 



THE JOUEliTEY TO METZ 



T last Louis XV. is at the head of his troops. 
There is a burst of enthusiasm as soon as he 
appears at the northern frontier. He is thirty-four 
years old, has a fine bearing and an expression at 
once kindly and dignified. He sits a horse well and 
makes an excellent figure in front of the regiments. 
He is present at the siege of Menin, and people lavish 
praises on him. He has gone through the trenches, 
he has visited the ambulances, he has tasted the broth 
of the invalids and the bread of the soldiers. Every- 
body cries : " He is a warrior ! he is a father ! he is 
a king!" He has brought his chaplain with him, 
Monseigneur cle Fitz-James, Bishop of Soissons, to 
give him the last sacraments if required, and his con- 
fessor, Pere P^russeau, to give him absolution in case 
he is in danger of death. There are no women in 
camp. The Duchesses of Ch^teauroux and Laura- 
guais have shown themselves at the opera to prove 
they have not followed the sovereign. Things are 
going on well. There is not the least scandal. 
Menin opens its gates June 4. Fireworks are set 

75 



76 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

off at the H8tel-de-Ville in Paris. The Te Deum 
is chanted in every church in France. Universal joy 
and confidence prevail. 

But presently a dark cloud appears in this clear 
sky. Louis XV. is bored at the army as he was at 
Versailles. Post equitem sedet atra cura. He misses 
Madame de Chateauroux, and prefers the women's 
jokes to the reports of his generals. The favorite is 
likewise uneasy ; she fancies that the warrior will 
deteriorate the lover; she fears for her position. "In 
truth, dear uncle," she writes, June 3, to the Duke de 
Richelieu, "I was not made for things like these, 
and from time to time I am seized by terrible dis- 
couragements. I am so naturally averse to it all that 
I must have been a great fool to have meddled with 
it. However, it is done, and I must have patience ; 
I am persuaded that everything will turn out accord- 
ing to my wishes." 

Madame de Chateauroux is absolutely determined 
to rejoin the King. But how is it to be done? There 
is not a single woman with the army. If she should 
be the first one to arrive, the scandal would be much 
too great. A princess of the blood, the Duchess 
de Chartres, gives the example ; she sets off under 
pretext of her husband's fall from a horse. Directly 
Mesdames de Chateauroux and de Lauraguais follow 
suit. June 6 they have the impudence to come and 
say good by to the Queen, who carries long-suffering 
so far as to invite them both to supper. 

"One cannot sufficiently praise," says the Duke 



THE JOURNEY TO METZ 77 

cle Luynes in noting the fact, "the courtesy she dis- 
plays to all the men and women who come to pay 
court to her." 

Two days afterward the pair of duchesses leave 
Versailles by night. The King receives them at 
Lille, and then goes to take the city of Ypres. 
Madame de Chateauroux carries fatuity so far as to 
attribute this success to herself. June 25 she wrote 
from Lille to the Duke de Richelieu : " You know 
how ready I always am to see everything in rose- 
color, and that I think my star, which I rely on, and 
which is not a bad one, has influence on everything. 
It answers instead of good generals and ministers. 
He has never done so well as in placing himself 
under its direction." Thus, as is plainly evident, 
Madame de Chateauroux considers herself as the 
King's directress. 

A thing painful to admit, because it shows so 
clearly the demoralization of the period, is that the 
Marquis d'Argenson finds this ridiculous and scan- 
dalous journey quite natural. He writes in his 
Memoirs, June 30, 1744 : " The King has begun to 
show himself at the head of the army. It must be 
owned that this conduct is in good taste. Some 
people claim that it is a stain on his glory to have 
brought his mistress to the army, thus dishonoring 
the princesses and great people who came with him. 
Surely there is some prejudice in such a reproach. 
For why, in fact, should he deny himself pleasures 
which harm nobody? The Flemish are superstitious. 



78 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

They have been told that the King has had three 
sisters ; they are scandalized to see these two arrive 
at Lille. Two hours afterward a barracks took fire, 
and they said it was caused by fire from heaven." 

Barbier is not quite so indulgent, but he pleads 
extenuating circumstances. " The public," says he, 
" does not find this journey to its taste. . . . Never- 
theless it is just to say that a decent appearance is 
given it by the concourse of three princesses of the 
blood and a number of ladies who are all supposed 
to have gone thither to keep company with ]\Iadame 
the Duchess de Chartres, who had a legitimate excuse 
for going to the army." 

The people, who have the veritable moral instinct, 
are more just and more severe. They are indignant. 
The soldiers jeer at the two duchesses. The Queen 
is pitied and the favorite detested. While all this 
is going on, Alsace is invaded, and Louis XV. goes 
to Metz, drao'Sfinsj after him his train of women like 
an Asiatic monarch. On the way Madame de Cha- 
teauroux falls sick at Rheims. The King thinks she 
is going to die, and begins to consider where she 
shall be buried and what sort of mausoleum he shall 
build for her. It is only a vain alarm. The favorite 
speedily recovers and goes to join the King at Metz. 
She establishes herself and her sister in the Abbey of 
Saint Arnould, and a long wooden gallery is con- 
structed to put the abbey in communication with the 
palace where Louis XV. is quartered. Four streets 
are closed for this purpose. The people murmur. 



THE JOUBNET TO METZ 79 

In order to quiet them, an effort is made to persuade 
them that the only purpose of this wooden gallery is 
to make it easier for the monarch to be present at 
Mass. 

All at once a sinister rumor gets about. The King 
has fallen ill on August 4. His life is in danger. 
He thinks he has but a few moments before he must 
appear before God. All his religious sentiments 
revive. He wishes to make his confession ; but the 
departure of Madame de Chateauroux is indispen- 
sable for that, and Louis XV., always weak, has not 
courage to dismiss her. He adjourns his confession 
under the pretext that he needs a little time in 
which to recollect all his faults. His mistress ap- 
proaches his bed. He wants to kiss her hand. Then, 
thinking better of it, he says : " Ah ! Princess, I think 
I am doing wrong; perhaps we shall have to sepa- 
rate." Madame de Chateauroux parleys with the 
Jesuit P^russeau. She implores him not to have 
her driven away. She swears she will no longer be 
the King's mistress, but only his friend. But the 
Jesuit is firm. Bishop Fitz-James behaves like an 
apostle ; he says frankly to the King : " Sire, the 
laws of the Church and our holy canons forbid us 
to bring the Viaticum so long as the concubine is 
still in the city. I pray Your Majesty to give new 
orders for her departure, because there is no time to 
lose. Your Majesty will soon die!" Louis XV. 
hesitates no longer ; the libertine disappears ; the 
devotee alone remains. " I made my first commun- 



80 TUE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

ion twenty-two years ago,'' lie says to the Bishop ; 
" I wish to make a good one now and let it be the 
last. Ah ! how iin\voi'th3'- I have been up to this 
day of royalty. What acconnts a king must render 
who is about to appear before God ! " Louis XV. 
receives extreme unction. Bishop F'itz-James, who 
administers it, turns toAvard the spectators and 
addresses them in these words : " Gentlemen the 
princes of the blood, and you, nobles of the realm, 
the King charges IMonseigneur the Bishop of Metz 
and me to acquaint you with his sincere repentance 
for the scandal he has caused in his kingdom by 
living as he has done with Madame do Chateauroux. 
He has learned that she is only three leagues from 
here, and he orders her not to come within fifty 
leagues of the court. His IMajesty deprives her of 
her post." " And her sister also," adds the King. 

Could one believe it? This noble and Christian 
conduct of Bishop Fitz-Jaraes finds detractors. Bar- 
bier writes in his journal : " People hereabouts regard 
the action of the Bishop of Soissons as the finest 
thing in the world. The public often admire the 
greatest event^s without reflection. For my part, 
I take the liberty of considering this coiuluet very 
indecent, and this public reparation as an open 
scantlal. The reputation of a king ought to be 
respected, and he should bo allowed to die with the 
rites of religion, but M'ith dignity and majesty. 
What is the gooil of this ecclesiastical parade? It 
was enough for the King to have interiorly a sincere 



THE JOURNEY TO METZ 81 

repentance for what lie had done without making- 
a disphiy of it." 

All France is affected. It is rumored that the 
King's malady was caused by his grief at the inva- 
sion of Alsace. His kindness, his repentance, his 
courage, his patriotism, are everywhere celebrated. 
Masses are said for him in every church in the king- 
dom. The clergy read from the pulpits the bulletins 
from Metz and accounts of the King's public penance. 
People speak of him with tears of tenderness and 
admiration. As for his favorite, the " Lady in red," 
as the people call her, she is loaded with maledic- 
tions. The Queen is sent for to INIetz. She leaves 
Versailles August 15, amidst universal emotion. 
When she reaches her spouse, he receives her with 
tenderness. He embraces her and asks pardon for 
the pain he has given her. 

The next day Louis XV. has Madame de Villais 
waked up at four o'clock in the morning. He knows 
the Queen has great confidence in her, and he wants 
her to tell him if Marie Leczinska has really forgiven 
him. He expresses the most beautiful sentiments, 
begging God, as he says, to withdraw him from the 
world if his people would be governed better by 
some one else. His convalescence begins a few days 
later. The Queen is full of joy ; she thinks her 
husband has become a saint. But here we leave 
the narrative to the Duchess de Brancas, a witness 
of the hopes and the disappointments of Marie Lec- 
zinska : — • 



82 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

" The old court," she sa3^s in a curious fragment 
of Memoirs, "found small difficulty in convincing 
itself that God, after striking the King, would touch 
his heart. The maid-of-honor was so devoutly per- 
suaded of this one day that, finding the King in such 
a condition that he could give the Queen indubitable 
marks of a sincere reconciliation, she had the Queen's 
bed changed into a nuptial couch and put two pil- 
lows over the bolster. You can understand what 
hopes were revealed, by the joy of some people and 
the astonishment of others. The Queen had been 
wonderfully well dressed since the King's convales- 
cence ; she wore rose-colored gowns. The old ladies 
announced their hopes by green ribbons; in fact, 
there had been nothing so spirituelle in toilet adorn- 
ments seen for a long time ; one was reminded of 
ancient gallantry by the way in which they were 
relied on to announce everything without compro- 
mising anybody. But you can also conceive the 
pleasure which the Duke de Bouillon and the Duke 
de Richelieu took in speaking to the King about 
what was going on in the Queen's palace. He 
seemed so dissatisfied with it that these gentlemen 
thought they would not displease him by notifying 
the mothers of the churches that they had been 
mistaken in getting ready a Te Deum which they 
would never chant, and that nothing was more uncer- 
tain than the King's conversion. This was quite 
enough to decide these ladies to change their toilette. 
Some assumed more modest colors, others lowered 
their headdresses, still others wore less rouge." 



THE JOURNEY TO METZ 83 

The Duke cle Richelieu, that Mephistopheles of 
Louis XV., had prophesied correctly. When he was 
sick, the King was a saint. When he was well, he 
once more became a debauchee. A sort of human 
respect made him blush at liis momentary conversion 
to virtue. He felt there was something ridiculous 
in his repentance. He bore a grudge against his 
confessor, his chaplain, and all those who had given 
him good advice. The love of his people, far from 
touching his heart, dissatisfied him, because these 
loyal and faithful subjects had had the audacity not 
to kneel before the Duchess de Chateauroux. He 
took offence at the respect showed to the Queen, 
and considered the priests who had prayed so well 
for him almost as adversaries of his royal authority. 
Poor Marie Leczinska's illusions were soon dispelled. 
When Louis XV. was about to leave Metz, she 
tremblingly asked his permission to follow him to 
Saverne and to Strasburg. " It is not worth while," 
he responded in a dry tone. The Queen went away 
in despair. The heart she thought she had regained 
had finally escaped her. 



X 

THE DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUROUX 

WHAT has become of Madame de Chfi,teauroux ? 
How is she bearing her humiliations and 
her disgrace ? We left her at Metz at the moment 
when, driven away ignominiously by the Bishop of 
Soissons, treated as an accursed wretch by the people, 
overwhelmed by the anathemas of the public con- 
science, she with great difficulty procured a carriage 
from Marshal de Belle-Isle in which to return to 
Paris. Her flight had been painful. She only 
escaped rough treatment by taking by-roads and 
going through several villages in disguise and on 
foot. However, she had not yet submitted. From 
Bar-le-Duc she wrote to M. de Richelieu : ^ " I can 
well believe that so long as the King's head is feeble 
he will be in a state of great devotion ; but as soon 
as he is a little better, I bet I shall trot furiously 
through his head, and that in the end he will not be 
able to resist, and will quietly ask Lebel and Bache- 
lier what has become of me." 



1 Lettres autographes de la duchesse de Chateauroux. Bihlio- 
theque de Eouen. 

84 



DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE GHATEAUROUX 85 

In the same letter the fallen favorite speaks of 
herself with admiring complacency. "So long as 
the King is living," she says, " all the torments they 
want to inflict on me must be borne with patience. 
If he recovers, I shall affect him the more on that 
account, and he will feel the more obliged to make 
me a public reparation. If he dies, I am not the sort 
of person to humiliate myself, even if I could gain 
the kingdom of France by it. Up to now I have 
conducted myself with dignity; I shall always pre- 
serve that inclination; it is the only way to make 
myself respected, to win back the public and retain 
the consideration I deserve." Can one be amazed 
at the illusions cherished by certain kings when a 
mere royal mistress has her eyes so thickly bandaged? 

Debility succeeded to fever. Sometimes Madame 
de Chateauroux, intoxicated with pride and ven- 
geance, fancied she was about to resume arrogantly 
the left-handed sceptre which had just slipped 
through her fingers ; sometimes she cast a disdainful 
glance at the sorry spectacle of the human comedy, 
and talked of abandoning everything. She wrote 
from Sainte-M^nehould to the Duke de Richelieu 
(August 18, 1744): "All this is very terrible and 
gives me a furious disgust for the place I lived in 
despite myself, and, far from desiring to return there 
some day, as you believe, I am persuaded that even 
if they wished it I could never consent. All I desire, 
meanwhile, is that the affront offered me shall be 
repaired, and not to be dishonored. That, I assure 



86 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

you, is my sole ambition. . . . Ah ! my God, what 
does all this amount to ? I give you my word it is 
all over so far as I am concerned. I would have to 
be a great fool to go into it again; and 3^ou know 
how little I was flattered and dazzled by all the 
grandeurs, and that if I had had my own way, I 
would not have been there; but the thing is done; 
I must resign myself and think no more about it." 

These be sage reflections. But the favorite's phi- 
losophy lasted no longer than the King's repentance. 
La Rochefoucauld says in his maxims : " The intelli- 
gence of the majority of women serves rather to 
fortify their folly than their reason." Hardly had 
she reached Paris when the Duchess felt all her 
ambitious spites and rages rekindle to new life. She 
wrote to the Duke de Richelieu: "You have good 
reason to say it would be fine to make the day of the 
Dupes come round again ; for me, I don't doubt, it is 
all the same a Thursday ; but patience is needed, — 
in fact, a great deal of patience. All you have been 
told about the remarks made at Paris is very true ; 
you could hardly believe how far they have gone ; if 
you had been there at the time, you would have been 
torn to pieces. ... I tell you we shall get through 
it, and I am persuaded it will be a very fine moment ; 
I should like to be there now, as you can easily 
believe." 

Evidently, renunciation of earthly vanities was 
already far in the background. The Duchess wrote 
again to Richelieu, September 13: "I hope the 



DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUBOUX 87 

King's sickness has not taken away his memory. 
No one but me has known his heart thus far, and I 
assure you he has a very good one, very capable of 
sentiments. I don't deny that there is something a 
little singular along with all that, but it does not get 
the upper hand. He will remain devout, but not a 
bigot ; I love him ten times better ; I will be his 
friend, and then I shall be beyond attack. All that 
these scamps have done during his illness will only 
make my destiny more fortunate and secure. I shall 
no longer have to fear either changes, sickness, or 
the devil, and we shall lead a delicious life. . . . 
Adieu, dear uncle, keep yourself well. For my part, 
I am really thinking of getting a health like a por- 
ter's, so as to enrage our enemies as long as I can 
and have time to ruin them ; that will happen, you 
may rely on it." 

Meanwhile all this was accompanied by moral 
and physical sufferings, convulsions, nervous attacks, 
inquietudes, and agonizing pains. With her ecstasies 
and self-abasements, her alternatives of pride and 
humility, folly and clear-sightedness, ardor and 
disgust, illusions and discouragement, Madame de 
ChS,teauroux is the type of the passionate woman. 
There is nothing sadder than this correspondence, 
which is the confession of a soul. One lacks courage 
to be angry with these avowals so na'ive in their 
immorality. To make such scandals possible a 
whole century must be corrupted. What one should 
accuse is not a woman, but an epoch. 



88 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

INIadanie de Chateauroux understood the character 
of Louis XV. very well. She knew beforehand that 
he would come back to her. He had, in fact, but one 
idea, — to be reconciled with his mistress. He found 
camp life insupportable. He consented to witness 
the taking of Fribourg, but as soon as the city sur- 
rendered he returned in haste to Paris. He made 
his formal entr}' November 13, 17-1-4, at six in the 
evening, in one of the coronation carriages. Tri- 
umphal arches had been erected with the inscrip- 
tion : Ludovico redivivo ct triwnpJiafori. The houses 
were filled to the roofs Avith applauding spectators. 
The monarch alighted at the palace of the Tuileries, 
where the nobles of the realm were drawn up in 
double line awaiting him. The next day he went 
with all the royal family to Notre Dame to render 
thanks to God. Madame de Chateauroux was hidden 
amongst the crowd. In the evening she wrote to 
Hichelieu : " I have seen him ; he looked J03-f ul and 
affected, so he is capable of a tender sentiment. . . . 
A single voice near me recalled my misfortunes by 
naming me in a very offensive manner.'' 

It was neither of his glory, his people, or of God 
that Louis XV. was thinking, as he came out of 
Notre Dame. Madame de Chateauroux still occu- 
pied his whole attention. She lived very near the 
Tuileries, in the rue de Bac. That night, when all 
was quiet in the palace, he crossed the Pont-Royal, 
and arrived unattended at the favorite's house, like 
a criminal who comes to entreat pardon. Madame 



DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUBOUX 89 

de Cliateauroux received him with arrogance, and 
imposed severe conditions before absolving him. 
Louis XV. was ready to agree to everything except 
the dismissal of Maurepas, a useful and agreeable 
minister, who worked as well as amused himself, and 
who had the gift of making business easy. The 
King then returned to the Tuileries, and presently it 
was rumored that the Duchesses of ChS,teauroux and 
Lauraguais were about to reappear triumphantly at 
court. The people, who resemble the chorus in 
Greek tragedies, at once resumed their anathemas. 
" Since the King is going to take her back," cried the 
market-women, "he will never find another ^ Pater ^ 
on the streets of Paris." 

The prudent Duke de Luynes was more circum- 
spect in his speech. He said, apropos of the news of 
this return to favor: "It has been almost publicly 
spoken of all over Paris, and Versailles, where little 
is said ordinarily, has not been absolutely exempt 
from some remarks concerning it. However, as such 
remarks serve only to displease, and are moreover 
useless, those who are wisest have kept silence." 

The thing was done, the arrangement concluded. 
There had been a compromise between the King and 
his mistress. Maurepas was not to leave the min- 
istry, but it was he who was charged to bear the 
King's excuses to Madame de Cliateauroux, rue de 
Bac, and an invitation to return to Versailles. The 
minister acquitted himself of this commission Novem- 
ber 25. The Duchess, who was sick abed, replied 



90 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

that as soon as she was able to get up she would 
comply with the King's orders. That evening she 
wrote to her friend the Duchess de Boufflers : " I 
rely too much on your friendship not to acquaint 
you at once with what concerns me. The King has 
just sent me word by M. de Maurepas, that he was 
very much offended by all that occurred at Metz, 
and the indecency with which I had been treated; 
that he begged me to forget it, and that, to give him 
a proof of my having done so, he hoped my sister 
and myself would have the kindness to resume our 
apartments at Versailles ; that he would give us on 
all occasions tokens of his protection, his esteem, 
and his friendship, and that he would restore us to 
our positions." 

So many emotions had prostrated Madame de 
Chateauroux. Joy revived her for awhile, but all 
was over with her; she was never again to see 
either the palace of Versailles, so greatly longed for, 
or the King whose love had been so fatal to her. 
She never left her bed again. A burning fever con- 
sumed her ; she thought herself poisoned, and suf- 
fered horrible tortures in soul and body. Her worst 
enemies would have pitied her. Her agony lasted 
eleven days. She had a violent delirium accompa- 
nied by convulsive movements, and struggled against 
death with all the energy of her youth, all the vehe- 
mence of her character. In spite of his pretended 
passion, Louis XV. did not trouble himself to come 
and bid her adieu. He did not even send directly 



DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUBOUX 91 

to inquire about her. Madame de Lauraguais, who 
had just had a child, was not beside her sister's bed. 
The Duchess de Cliateauroux died alone, December 
8, 1744. The King deserted her; Jesus Christ did 
not forsake her. At her last hour, she repented like 
Magdalen, and for the first time in years, the dying 
sinner knew interior peace. " Pere Segand was with 
her," says the Duke de Luynes. "As he was speak- 
ing to her of the confidence we ought to have in the 
Blessed Virgin, she replied that she had always worn 
a little medal of her, and that she had begged two 
graces through her intercession, — not to die without 
the sacraments, and to die on one of her feasts. She 
had already obtained the first and was presently to 
obtain the second, for she died on the feast of the 
Conception." 

At first Louis XV. felt crushed. The Queen her- 
self, who practised on so great a scale the wholly 
Christian virtue of forgiveness of injuries, the Queen 
shared sincerely in her husband's grief. She passed 
in solitude the evening which had been set apart for 
a friendly reunion at the house of the Duchess de 
Luynes. During the night she became frightened, 
and summoned one of her women : " My God ! " cried 
she, " that poor duchess ! If she should return ! . . . 
I think I see her." — " Eh ! madame," returned the 
chambermaid, " if she comes back, it will not be Your 
Majesty that receives her first visit." 

Barbier in his journal pities, not Madame de Clia- 
teauroux, as one might imagine, but Louis XV. He 



92 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

says : " Judicious people praise his sensibility, which 
is the proof of a good character, but they fear for 
his health. The common herd are rather pleased 
than otherwise at this death ; they would like to 
have the King unsentimental and take another one 
to-morrow." The Marquis d'Argenson writes to 
Richelieu : " Our poor master has a look which makes 
one tremble for his life." D'Argenson might reas- 
sure himself. Louis XV. was far too feeble to suffer 
a long sorrow. His emotions were keen but transi- 
tory. There was but one thing in his character which 
had any tenacity, and that was ennui. He belonged 
to the numerous family of egoists. Some of them 
weep a good deal, but console themselves quickly. 
Nothing was to be changed in the habits of the 
master. A few days more and the name of the 
Duchess de Chateauroux would be no more spoken. 
There was but one person who truly regretted her, 
and that was Madame de Mailly, the sister to whom 
she had shown herself so coldly and pitilessly cruel. 
An impression of melancholy and sorrow is what 
remains from all this. What, in brief, was the fate 
of the three sisters chosen by royal caprice ? One 
of them, the Countess de Vintimille, died in childbed 
at the age of twenty-eight, and her death was the 
direct consequence, the immediate chastisement, of 
her fault. Another, the Duchess de Chateauroux, 
breathed her last at the age of twenty-seven, the 
victim of excessive anguish and humiliation. Her 
favor, like that of Madame de Vintimille, had lasted 



DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE CHATEAUROUX 93 

only two years. The third, the Countess de Mailly, 
better treated by Providence, since she had at least 
time for repentance, lived until she was forty. But 
her last years were merely one long immolation. 
She covered herself with ashes ; she wore a hair 
shirt ; and if, as she was on her way to church, any 
passer-by recognized and called her by some insulting 
name, she would say : " You know me — well, then, 
pray for me." 

How ephemeral are the pleasures of courts ! How 
sad its sensual enjoyments ! How dearly one pays 
for these swift moments of illegitimate joy and false 
pride ! Ah ! I imderstand why Louis XV. should 
be dissatisfied with others and with himself. I 
understand his exhaustion, his discouragement, his 
remorse, and I am not amazed that, in spite of the 
clink of glasses, the glitter of chandeliers, and the 
perfume of flowers, the boudoirs of Versailles some- 
times resembled sepulchres. 



SECOND PART 

[1745-1768] 



95 



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MADAME DE POMPADOUR. 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 

THE tragic end of the Duchess de Chateauroux 
should have inspired Louis XV. with some sage 
reflections. It was otherwise. At the end of a few 
weeks a new favorite installed herself in the apart- 
ment left vacant by the defunct. Before narrating 
the long reign of the Marquise de Pompadour, let 
us glance at the interior of the royal family at the 
moment when this woman, who was much rather a 
minister in petticoats than a mistress, and who un- 
happily personifies a whole epoch, came into favor. 

In 1745 Louis XV. is thirty-five years old. From 
the physical point of view he is a model sovereign. 
His handsome face is characterized by an expression 
of benevolent grandeur and gentle majesty. A fine 
and sympathetic physiognomy, large blue eyes with 
an expressive and profound regard, an aquiline nose, 
a truly royal way of carrying his head, the most 
dignified attitude without the least appearance of 
stiffness, manners both elegant and simple, an agree- 
able and penetrating tone of voice, all contribute to 
give an exceptional charm to this king whom all 

97 



98 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



France surnames the Well-Beloved. He shows 
extreme politeness to all who approach him, and one 
might say that he seems to solicit the affection of 
those to whom he speaks. An accomplished gentle- 
man, he is always calm, always well-bred. He is 
never irritated, never raises his voice. His domestics 
find him the easiest of masters. One day as he is 
getting ready to mount on horseback, somebody 
fetches him two boots for the same foot. He sits 
down quietly and contents himself with saying : " He 
who made the mistake is more annoyed than I am." ^ 
In general he is reserved, taciturn ; he does not give 
himself away, but when he concludes to talk, his 
conversation is full of ingenious views and judicious 
remarks ; he has wit and good sense. 

In religious matters he is not a hypocrite ; he 
belongs to that numerous class of Christians who 
retain both their vices and the faith. He Sfoes to 
Mass every day. On Sundays and holy days he is 
also present at Vespers, Sermon, and Benediction. 
As the Marquis d'Argenson says, he "mutters his 
Paternosters and prayers in church with customary 
decency," and he is putting off to some future time his 
perfect conversion. When he is urged to eat meat 
in Lent for the sake of his health, he answers that 
one ought not to sin on all sides. At another time 
he is heard congratulating himself on his rheumatic 
pains, because, says he, his sufferings are an expiation 

1 Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes. 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 99 

for his faults. One day when he is sending alms to 
a poor man, he exclaims : " Let this poor man ask 
God to show mercy to me, for I greatly need it." 
When the feasts of the Church draw near, they 
occupy his mind and disturb it ; when he dares not 
communicate, through fear of sacrilege, his soul is 
filled with sadness, and the flatteries of his courtiers 
cannot give peace to his conscience. 

His remorse takes the form of ennui. Dissatisfied 
with himself, he often reflects that he is endangering 
his salvation for so-called pleasures from which he 
frequently gains nothing but physical and moral 
fatigue, which are still harder to endure. Egotism 
does not prevent him from yielding to disgust. As 
is remarked by M. Capefigue himself, great admirer 
as he is of royal pleasures, the capital defect of the 
King's character is to allow the immense ennui 
which consumes him to become too evident. "He 
suffers the terrible chastisement imposed by satiety, 
that cold branding of both soul and body ; he experi- 
ences the emptiness and impotence of sensuality." 

Such also is the conclusion of the Goncourts in 
their fine work, Les Mattresses de Louis XV. 
"Ennui," they say, "is the sovereign's evil genius. 
It strikes with impotence all his fortunate natural 
endowments ; it ages, disarms, extinguishes his will, 
it stifles his conscience as well as his kingly appe- 
tites. Ennui is the private torturer of his sluggish 
existence, of his heavy hours. ... So true is this 
that the story of a king's amours is also the story of 
the ennui of a man." 



100 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes fully confirm 
this appreciation. He says in them: "The King's 
temperament is neither gay nor lively; it is even 
hypochondriacal. Details concerning maladies, oper- 
ations, very often matters that concern anatomy, and 
questions about where one expects to be buried, are, 
unfortunately, the subjects of his ordinary conversa- 
tion." "Where vs^ould you like to be buried?" he 
asks M. de Souvr^ one day. "At Your Majesty's 
feet," replies the courtier, who is noted for his frank- 
ness. Louis XV. remains pensive, because he has 
just been reminded that kings are not immortal. 
How well these profound words of Pascal apply to 
Louis XV. : " It does not require a very lofty soul 
to understand that there is no true and solid satis- 
faction here below, that all our pleasures are but 
vanities, that our woes are infinite, and that in fine 
death, which threatens us every instant, must put us 
in a few years, and perchance in a few days, in an 
eternal state of happiness, or misery, or annihilation. 
Between us and heaven, hell or nothingness, there is, 
then, nothing but life, which is the most fragile of 
all things in the world ; and heaven being certainly 
not for those who doubt whether their soul is im- 
mortal, they have nothing to expect but hell or 
nothingness. Nothing is more real than this, nor 
more terrible. Do all that the brave demand of us, 
and yet there is the end which awaits the most beau- 
tiful of lives." Here is the secret of the King's 
implacable sadness. Like all men who have but 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 101 

half a religion, he finds in it not consolations, but 
terrors. The feasts of the Church are not joys but 
tortures to him. 

His monarchical faith is like his religious faith ; it 
disturbs rather than reassures him. He feels him- 
self unworthy to be the anointed of the Lord. His 
conscience as a king troubles him as much as his con- 
science as a Christian. He esteems neither himself 
nor those who surround him. He willingly agrees 
with his minister of foreign affairs, the Marquis 
d'Argenson, a monarchist who talks like a republican, 
that " Numerous and magnificent courts, the bait of 
fools and the wicked, will never make the splendor 
of royalty. There will always be display enough in 
decency. ... Be persuaded that the greatest vice 
of monarchical governments is what is called the 
court. To begin with the monarch, it is from him 
that all vices are drawn, and from him that they 
spread as from the box of Pandora." But do not 
exaggerate, do not force the note. Recollect espe- 
cially that republican courts — and there are such, 
for democrats in power also have their courtiers — 
are neither more rigid nor more moral than those of 
kings and emperors. 

It must always be remembered that a real difference 
exists between the royalty of Louis XIV. and that of 
Louis XV. Louis XIV. performed his kingly duties 
with the facility of a great actor playing his part, 
or, better, with the dignity of an officiating priest. 
Louis XV., on the contrary, in spite of his noble 



102 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

bearing and the successful beginnings of his reign, is 
almost ashamed of his royal dignity. He does not 
like what is grand ; what he prefers are small apart- 
ments, little suppers, petty conversations. At times 
the monarch is not even a private gentleman; he is a 
bourgeois who makes up his own kitchen accounts, 
who saves candle-ends, who haggles with his domes- 
tics, who leads a mean and grovelling existence. It 
is not he who would have chosen the haughty device 
of tne Sun King: JVec pluribus impar. The beams of 
the royal star dazzle his eyes. What pleases him is 
not the splendid glittering Gallery of Mirrors, but 
smart residences, little dwellings hid in verdure ; 
Choisy for example, where, as the Duke de Luynes 
puts it, he is almost like a private person who takes 
pleasure in doing the honors of his chateau. 

■But neither let us forget that from time to time 
Louis XV. has inklings of greatness, dreams of glory 
and power. He is not the sluggard king that badly 
informed historians portray. Military instincts revive 
in him. The pride of his race awaked. " The King 
amidst his troops, becomingly uniformed in white or 
blue or jonquil, his hat placed coquettishly above his 
ear, the white cord, the shoulder-knot on his coat, 
himself starts the gay speeches, the tales of gallantry. 
The nobleman goes to battle in ruffles and powdered 
hair, with perfume on his Brussels lace handkerchief ; 
elegance has never done harm to courage, and polite- 
ness is nobly allied to bravery." ^ 

1 M. Capefigue, Madame la Marquise de Pompadour. 1 vol. 
Amyot. 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 103 

1745 is a triumphant year, the year of Fontenoy, 
one of our greatest national Yictories. There Louis 
XV. and the Dauphin behave like sons of Henri IV. 
Voltaire's enthusiasm when he celebrates this great 
clay is not made to order, and the advocate Barbier 
is sincere in exclaiming that the reign of Louis XV, 
is the finest in all E^-ench history. 

Nor let us believe that this monarch, over-lauded 
by his contemporaries but too much decried by his- 
tory, is as indolent as people like to say. On the 
contrary, he works, and works a great deal. He not 
merely presides with the greatest regularity at the 
ministerial council, but he busies himself in a very 
special way with military and diplomatic affairs. If 
he readily agrees with what is proposed by his minis- 
ters without troubling himself to contradict them, it 
is because apart from official politics he has a secret 
policy whose springs he personally controls.^ His 
intentions are good, he loves France sincerely. What 
then will ruin him? Two defects which are nearly 
always inseparable : sensuality and indecision. 

Sensuality enfeebles, enervates ; the man who is 
its victim can no longer either act or will. In the 
end he arrives at that commonplace benevolence, 
that insignificant good nature, that absence of char- 
acter and energy, those inconsistencies and hesitations 
which rob sovereigns as well as private individuals 
of the very notion of just ideas and the courage of 

1 M. Boutaric, Correspondance Secrete de Louis XV. 



104 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

salutary resolutions. Louis XV. comes from the 
arms of his mistresses without force enough left to 
be a king. 

Distrust and timidity form the basis of his char- 
acter. " He knows he is badly served," says M. 
Boutaric ; " absolute master, he has only to speak 
to be obeyed, and, fortified by conscience, he can 
command, but he is so timid, let us say the word, 
so pusillanimous, that after having carefully sought 
the best way and seen it clearly, he nearly always 
decides, although with regret, for the worst which 
is proposed to him by his ministers or his mistresses. 
It is of public notoriety that when the King proposes 
anything in council, his opinion is always combated, 
and that, after making a number of objections, the 
prince always ends by adopting that of his counsel- 
lors, knowing, meantime, that he is doing wrong, and 
muttering to himself, ' So much the worse ; they 
would have it.' " Thus he illustrates those lines of 

Horace : — 

" Video meliora proboque, 

Deteriora sequor." 

There are moments when, to use the expression 
of Duclos, he affects to regard himself as a disgraced 
prince of the blood without any credit at court. One 
day when the Queen is complaining of the opposition 
made to one of her recommendations by a minister, 
he says : " Why don't you do as I do ? I never ask 
anything of those people." In spite of his omnipo- 
tence he feels himself always under the necessity of 




JEANNE D'ALBRET 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 105 

employing subterfuges and- underhand expedients. 
According to a man who knew him well and saw him 
every day, Le Roy, master of the hounds, he consid- 
ered dissimulation the most needful quality for a 
sovereign. " His hobby," says the Marquis d'Argen- 
son, "is to be impenetrable." Another of his defects 
is to consider that very honest men are generally not 
very able. Hence the great number of disreputable 
men whom he intrusts with most important posi- 
tions. With such a system he is doomed to per- 
petual fluctuations, to that variability which is the 
sign of weakness. He will hesitate between peace 
and war, between a Prussian and an Austrian alli- 
ance, between the Parliamentarians and their ene- 
mies, between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. He 
has a horror of the philosophers, and he will make 
Voltaire a gentleman of the chamber and lodge Ques- 
nay in an entresol of the palace of Versailles. He 
sincerely believes in the truth of the Catholic relig- 
ion, and he will take as his mistress, counsellor, and 
directress the friend of the Encyclopedists. By con- 
viction and principle he is essentially conservative, 
and he will be the precursor of the Revolution. 

"Oh! how well the word feebleness," exclaims 
D'Argenson, " expresses the passions of certain men 
endowed with good nature and facility. They see 
and approve the best and they follow the worst. 
Their virility is but a prolongation of childhood. 
Frequently they mistake the shadow of pleasure for 
pleasure itself. Youthfulness, childishness, self-love 



106 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

without pride, their acts of firmness are but obstinacy 
and revolt. . . . With tliis sad character a prince 
thinks he governs well when he simply does not 
govern at all. Every one deceives him, and he is the 
chief of his own betrayers. He has mistresses for 
whom he has no predilection, and absolute ministers 
in whom he does not confide. All the defects of 
which foreignei's accuse Frenchmen are found in 
him ; contrasts everywhere, the effects of a too frivo- 
lous imagination which overmasters judgment; wasted 
talents, good taste which nothing can satisfy, exact- 
ness in little things, inconstancy and lack of 
enthusiasm in great ones . . . ; memory without 
remembrance ; patience and calm, promptitude and 
kindness, mystery and indiscretion, avidity for new 
pleasures, disgust and ennui, momentary sensibility 
succeeded by general and complete apathy . . . total, 
a good master without humanity." 

Having thus drawn the portrait of Louis XV., 
D'Argenson says in speaking of the Queen : " She 
attracts by certain attentions, she repels by making 
her friendship too common. Her rank is a rallying 
signal and, since the King has declared mistresses, 
those who inveigh asfainst scandal attach themselves 
to her for the sake of displeasing the King and the 
favorite. Their murmurs are proportioned to the 
royal patience." 

In 1745 Marie Leczinska, who is the King's senior 
by seven years, has arrived at the age of forty-two. 
When her tenth child was born, July 15, 1737, 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 107 

Madame Louise, who was one day to become a Car- 
melite, some one asked the King, who already had 
six living children, if the little princess should be 
called Madame Seventh. He answered: "Madame 
Last." Thenceforward the Queen was neglected. 
Her husband has treated her with frigid politeness, 
but has always kept her at a distance; he never 
speaks to her except before witnesses. On New 
Year's day he gives her no presents. Not the least 
intimacy, the slightest unconstraint. The short daily 
visits he pays her are matters of decorum, formalities 
of etiquette. The Queen eats by herself. Between 
her apartments and those of the King there is a 
barrier which she never crosses. The familiar life 
and the cabinet suppers are not for her. Separated 
from each other by the Peace Salon, the Gallery of 
Mirrors, and the Council Chamber, each of the spouses 
has a life apart. 

Marie Leczinska is the only person who maintains 
at Versailles the ceremonious representation of the 
court of the great King, not through pride, but out 
of respect for principles. By eleven o'clock in the 
morning she has already heard one Mass, seen the 
King for an instant, received her children and 
the little entries ; at noon the state toilette and the 
crreat entries. At one o'clock Marie Leczinska hears 
a second Mass. At two o'clock she dines in public,^ 



1 The dinner took place in the room called the Queen's Ante- 
chamber, No. 117 of the Notice du Musee, by M. Eudore Soulie. 



108 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

served by her maid of honor and four ladies in full 
dress. A low balustrade separates her from a crowd, 
always curious to be present at this repast and to 
contemplate the features of a justly honored queen. 
Toward six in the evening she plays the game of loto 
then in fashion, the Cavagnole. When the King is 
present, she never sits down until he bids her do so, 
and 'tis a wonder if the pair exchange a few syllables. 
At ten the Queen withdraws, and after supper she 
sees a very restricted circle : tlie Duke and Duchess 
de Luynes, Mesdames de Villars and de Chevreuse, 
Minister Maurepas, Cardinals de Tencin and de 
Luynes, President H(^nault, Moncrif, and sometimes 
old Fontenelle. On Sundays the presentation of 
ladies takes place. It is also the day chosen for 
the taking of tabourets. The ceremonies occur in 
the room called the Queen's Salon,^ contiguous to the 
sleeping-chamber. The sovereign's chair is placed 
at the back of the room on a platform covered by a 
canopy .2 " By a few words, a nod, a glance, a smile, 
Marie Leczinska knows how to encourage the lady 
presented, whose embarrassment soon jdelds to a 
gentle confidence as the Queen addresses to her one 
of those remarks which remain engraven in the 
heart." ^ 



1 Room No. 116 of the Notice du Musee. 

2 The gilted screw-rings which served to support this canopy 
may still be seen in the cornice opposite the windows. 

8 La reine Marie Leczinska, by Madame the Countess d' Armaill6, 
born de S6gur. 1 vol., Didier. 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 109 

To sum up, neglected as she is by her husband, 
the Queen is happier than he, because she has the 
great boon, the supreme good, which lie has not: 
peace of heart. " What comparison is there," says a 
great preacher, "between the frightful remorse of 
conscience, that hidden worm which gnaws inces- 
santly, that sadness of crime which undermines and 
depresses, that weight of iniquity which crushes, that 
interior sword which pierces and which we cannot 
draw out, and the amiable sadness of penitence which 
works salvation? "1 This expression "amiable sad- 
ness " is most applicable to the Queen. Doubtless 
she suffers profoundly at seeing Louis XV. throw 
himself down the declivity of scandal. But, far 
from recriminating, she offers her sufferings to God. 
Gentle and pious victim, she finds ineffable consola- 
tions at the foot of the altar. Instead of avenging 
herself on the King by reproaches and bitter speeches, 
she prays for him. Her calmness, resignation, charity, 
her Christian virtues, and exquisite affability, make 
her the object of universal veneration. She is called 
nothing but the Good Queen. 

The Dauphin ^ is not less esteemed than his mother. 
In 1745 he is sixteen years old. He is a pious, 
well-taught, well-intentioned young man. He has 



1 Massillon, Sermon sur les degouts qui accompagnent la piete. 

2 Born at Versailles, September 4, 1729, died at Fontaiiiebleau, 
December 20, 1765. He married a Spanish Infanta in 1745, and in 
1747 a princess of Saxony, the mother of Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., 
and of Charles X. 



110 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



made serious studies. His favorite reading is Plato, 
Cicero, Tacitus, Lucretius, Horace, Virgil, Juvenal. 
He knows by heart the finest passages of the philoso- 
phers and poets of antiquity. For him were made 
those magnificent editions of the Louvre, Ad usum 
Belphini, one of the most precious monuments of 
contemporary typography. 

Full of respect for his father, he never speaks to 
him but in the tone of profound submission. He 
effaces himself, he holds himself in restraint. He 
says : " A Dauphin should employ one half his mind 
in concealing the other half." Louis XV. is suspi- 
cious ; it is well not to offend him. 

The Dauphin marries at Versailles, February 23, 
1745, an Infanta of Spain, daughter of Philip V., 
Marie Th^r^se Antoinette Raphaelle, younger sister 
of that Infanta Marie Anne Victoire whom Louis 
XV. was to have married. The affront of sending 
back that princess is thus repaired. The marriage 
festivities are splendid; no such pomp had ever been 
seen. "As the King has need of money," writes 
Barbier, "especially for the very considerable ex- 
penses of the Dauphin's marriage, a great many 
tontines are raised.^' The day that the Dauphiness 
arrived at Etampes, the King, who went to meet 
her, said : " Here is a good day's work done." She 
replied: "Sire, this is not what I dreaded most; I 
flattered myself you would receive me kindly. I am 
more afraid of to-morrow and the next day ; every- 
body will be looking at me, and I shall perhaps find 



LOUIS XV. AND THE EOYAL FAMILY IN 1745 111 

less favorable dispositions." The new Dauphiness 
is not pretty, but she is sympathetic. Her amiability 
wins everybody. She says to Madame de Brancas 
that she does not understand how one can become 
angry, and that if any possible case arose to make it 
necessary, she would beg some one the day before 
to do so in her stead. 

This marriage diverts the King, who no longer 
thinks of the poor Duchess de Chateauroux, who has 
been dead two months. Pleasures tread on each 
other's heels. The court is dazzling. How superb 
are these Versailles festivities, the last term of ele- 
gance and luxury ! What a magnificent masked 
balP in the radiant Gallery of Mirrors, glittering 
sanctuary of ecstasy and apotheosis, modern Olympus 
which seems made for goddesses and gods ! Imagine 
that aristocratic crowd which swarms up the Ambas- 
sadors' Staircase, streams through the grand apart- 
ments of the King, the halls of Venus, Diana, Mars, 
Mercury, and Apollo, the War Salon, to be present at 
the fairy-like ball given in the gallery under the 
vaulted ceilings decorated by Lebrun's magic brush ! 
Fancy the animation, the tumult of good company, 
the harmonious orchestras, the witty or gallant con- 
versations, the bright eyes glowing behind their 
masks, the colossal mirrors reflecting the richest 
and most varied costumes : fabulous divinities, great 
lords and chatelaines of the Middle Ages, Watteau's 

1 February 25, 1745. 



112 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

shepherds and shepherdesses ; chandeliers innumera- 
ble, pyramids of candles, baskets of flowers, a rain of 
diamonds and precious stones, and, to heighten still 
more the bewildering charm, the mysterious presence 
of that monarch, the handsomest man in all the 
kingdom, who hides his royalty under the folds of 
his domino ! 

In our civilian and democratic century we find it 
very difficult to get a perfect notion of such festivi- 
ties. " We children of a wretched and bloody revo- 
lution," as M. Capefigue says, " see these galleries 
of glass and gilding inundated with people in rough 
clothing, with noisy, hobnailed shoes, like a muddy 
torrent spreading over a parterre of tulips and varie- 
gated roses." Let us not forget that there was 
chivalry and courage, carelessness and gaiety, ani- 
mation and native wit, charm and elegance, in the 
last fortunate days of the French nobility. If the 
men who shone at that period should return, they 
would find ours mean and irksome. 

The noise of battle succeeds the echoes of the 
orchestras. Two months and a half after this fine 
ball Louis XV. and his son are with the army. The 
King wishes that the Dauphin, although but sixteen 
years old, should set an example, and at Fontenoy 
the young man excites the admiration of old soldiers 
by his ardor and courage. 

Louis XV. is a happy father. His son is a model 
of filial respect. His six daughters, Mesdames Elisa- 
beth, Henriette, Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, and 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 113 

Louise, all of whom with the exception of Madame 
Adelaide were educated in the convent of Fonte- 
vrault, have the most religious sentiments and display 
profound affection for their father. Only one of 
them is married, the eldest, Madame Elisabeth, who 
espoused in 1739 the Infant Don Philip, son of the 
King of Spain, and with whom Louis XV. did not 
part without keen sorrow. In 1745 only two of his 
daughters, Henriette and Adelaide, are with him. 
The other three, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, are 
still at Fontevrault, and it is singular that this king, 
so affectionate to his children, should leave them in 
a convent eighty leagues from Versailles when it 
would be so easy to place them, if not close beside 
him, at least in some neighboring convent. 

In order to complete this sketch of the royal family 
in 1745, it remains to say a few words about the 
Duke d'Orl^ans and his son, the Duke de Chartres. 

Born in 1703, and widowed since 1726 of a prin- 
cess of Baden, the Duke d' Orleans, only son of the 
regent, seldom shows himself at court. The prema- 
ture death of his wife, whom he had the misfortune 
of losing after two years of marriage, had inspired him 
with extremely grave and Christian reflections. His 
tastes have become those of an anchorite. In 1730 
he resigned his position as Colonel-general in order 
to be more at liberty to make very frequent retreats 
at the Abbey of Sainte Genevidve. In 1742 he finally 
renounced all political action, and quitted the Coun- 
cil of State in order to install himself definitively 



114 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

in his dear abbey, where he leads the life of a monk, 
between prayer and study. He has left the adminis- 
tration of his property to his mother, keeping for 
himself only an income of one million eight hundred 
thousand livres, which he spends almost entirely in 
works of charity. 

'Tis a curious type this prince, so little like his 
father; this Christian, pious to asceticism, who sleeps 
on straw, drinks only water, does without fire in 
winter, who composes but will not print austere 
works, a translation of the Psalms with commentaries, 
part of the Old Testament and some of the Epistles 
of Saint Paul, a treatise against the theatre, histori- 
cal and theological dissertations, — a monastic prince 
whom the court has inclined to the cloister, who at 
his death (February 4, 1752) will bequeath his 
library to the Dominicans, his medals to the Abbey 
of Sainte Genevieve, and whose funeral oration will 
be composed by Jean Jacques Rousseau. 

His son, the Duke de Chartres, is twenty years 
old in 1745. A brilliant and brave young prince, 
who has distinguished himself as colonel at the 
battle of Dettingen, and as lieutenant-general at the 
siege of Fribourg. Married in 1743 to Louise Hen- 
riette de Bourbon-Conti, he loves the world as much 
as his father dislikes it, and he will be one of the 
principal actors in the theatre of the little apartments. 

So long as the Dauphin has no male children, it 
is the Orleans branch which, according to the renun- 
ciations of the treaty of Utrecht, must ascend the 



LOUIS XV. AND THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1745 115 

throne of France in case of the death of Louis XV. 
and his son. But on both sides of tlie Pyrenees the 
practical value of these renunciations is contested. 
When Louis XV. fell seriously ill before his mar- 
riage, in 1721, Philip V. made ready to reclaim the 
crown of France if the young King should die. 
When the Dauphin, who as yet has no heir, will him- 
self be in danger of death, Madame du Hausset will 
write in her Memoirs : " The King would be in 
despair at having a prince of the blood as his recog- 
nized successor. He does not like them, and looks 
at them so distantly as to humiliate them. When 
his son recovered, he said : ' The King of Spain 
would have had a good chance.' It is claimed that 
he was right in this, and that it would have been 
justice; but that if the Duke d' Orleans had had a 
party, he might have claimed the throne." 

We have just outlined the portraits of the members 
of the royal family in 1745. We are about to study 
the character of the woman who, issuing from the 
middle classes, was to exercise a real domination over 
the King and all his court during twenty years. 



II 

THE BEGINNINGS OE THE MAKQUISE DE POMPADOUR 

THERE are names which are the abridgment of 
an entire society. Such is that gay name which 
rhymes so well with " amour," which seems made ex- 
pressly for a grande dame after the manner of Lancret 
or Watteau, which would fit so well a comic opera or 
a pastoral, which is worthy to figure in the Temple 
of Cnidos and to be celebrated by the pretty little 
verses of the Abb^ de Bernis, which evokes so many 
souvenirs of immoral elegance and factitious senti- 
mentality of boudoirs and alcoves, comedies and 
gewgaws, pleasures and intrigues: the Marquise de 
Pompadour. Woman, name, title, all are alike gra- 
cious, pretty, sprightly ; but nothing is simple, noth- 
ing true. The character is that of a comedienne 
perpetually on the stage. The beauty owes a great 
part of its prestige to the refinements of luxury and 
the artifices of the toilette. The marquisate is a 
contraband one. 

The future favorite seems predestined almost from 
the cradle to her part. She is a little marvel, an 
infant prodigy. She is only nine years old when a 

116 



THE MABQUISE DE POMPADOUR 117 

fortune-teller by cards predicts to her that she will 
be the mistress of Louis XV. This prediction 
delights her family ; they believe in it as if it were 
written in the Gospels, and they decide to do all in 
their power to realize it. Aid yourself, and hell will 
aid you. She who was one day to call herself Madame 
the Marquise de Pompadour was then named Jeanne 
Antoinette Poisson. Born in Paris, December 29, 
1721, she had a father who was vulgar even to 
indecency, Fran9ois Poisson, former clerk of the 
Paris brothers, who was condemned to be hanged in 
1726 for malversations, but rehabilitated in 1741 after 
several years of exile. Her mother was a Demoiselle 
de la Motte, daughter of the provision contractor of 
the Hotel des Invalides, a very pretty woman, guilty 
of many infidelities to her husband, and very richly 
subsidized by a gallant farmer-general, M. Lenormand 
de Tournehem. The financier imagines, possibly 
with good reason, that he is the father of little 
Antoinette. Hence he gives her the most careful 
education. She is taught everything except virtue. 
Jeliotte teaches her singing and the harpsichord, 
Guibaudet dancing, Cr^billon declamation. She is 
an actress, a musician, an accomplished singer. She 
imitates la Gaussin and la Clairon marvellously. She 
rides admirably. She dresses ravishingly. She is as 
pretty as Cupid. Nobody tells a story so well as' 
she. She is pleasing, amusing, delightful. Her 
mother, enthusiastic over such charms, exclaims : 
" She is a morsel for a king ! " 



118 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

But how to justify the prediction of the sorceress? 
The place of king's mistress is occupied by none but 
very great ladies : a Countess de Mailly, a Countess 
de Vintimille, a Duchess de Chateauroux. Can little 
Poisson aspire to the same r81e ? If she persists in 
such schemes, will not people say that the keg always 
smells of the herring? Will the Duke de Richelieu 
permit a hourgeoise to supplant the nobility in this 
fashion? Mademoiselle Poisson does not allow her- 
self to be discouraged. She has her fixed idea. She 
believes in what she calls her star. Her marriage is 
the first rung of the ambitious ladder. March 9, 
1741, she marries a rich young man, M. Lenormand 
d'Etioles, deputy farmer-general, nephew of M. Lenor- 
mand de Tournehem, Madame Poisson's lover. The 
bride is nineteen, the husband twenty-four years old; 
he is madly in love, and as his wife tells him she will 
never betray him unless for the King, he mutters: 
" Then I can be very easy." 

The young wife is presently the fashion. She is 
the gem of that financial society which has made such 
headway since the latter years of Louis XIV. Presi- 
dent Hdnault writes to Madame du Deffand, July, 
1742 : " At Madame de Montigny's I met one of the 
prettiest women I have ever seen, Madame d'Etioles. 
She understands music perfectly, sings with all possi- 
ble gaiety and taste, knows a hundred ballads, and 
plays comedy at Etioles on a stage as fine as that of 
the Opera, with machinery and changes of scenes." 

She prepares her success skilfully. The trumpets 



THE MABQUISE BE POMPADOUR 119 

of fame are at her disposal. Voltaire, Montesquieu, 
Foiitenelle, the Abbe de Bernis, are her friends. At 
Paris, in her house in rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs, 
and at Etioles in her chateau near Corbeil, she leads 
a life of luxury and pleasures. She is an enchant- 
ress, a siren. But she has only one desire, — to make 
the King the objective point of all this magic. She 
would scorn any other conquest. 

The man she must have is Louis XV. To arrive 
at this conquest she will exhaust the resources of 
feminine coquetry. Never were manceuvres more 
persevering, artifices more sagacious. She has to 
play the enamoured woman, the passionate woman, 
to pursue the King when he hunts in the forest of 
Senart, to pass and repass, like a graceful apparition, 
like the goddess of the forests, through the midst of 
the escort with their dogs and horses, sometimes 
robed in azure in a rose-colored phaeton, sometimes 
in rose in a phaeton of blue. One day she is on 
horseback; another day she drives herself, in an 
elegant conch shell of rock crj^stal, two chestnut 
horses swift as lightning. The King inquires the 
name of this elegant and pretty woman. Then he 
sends her some of his game. Madame d'Etioles has 
good hopes. The Duchess de Chateauroux is dead ; 
she is sure of replacing her. 

The masked balls given at the time of the Dau- 
phin's marriage are excellent opportunities to display 
one's self. At the H6tel de Ville ball the prettiest 
women of the bourgeoisie are grouped together on a 



120 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

platform hung with velvet, silk, and gold. Madame 
d'Etioles appears as Diana the huntress, powdered, 
the quiver on her shoulder, the silver arrow in her 
hand. For an instant she takes off her mask and 
pretends to let fly an arrow at the King. " Beautiful 
huntress," cries the King, "the darts you discharge 
are fatal." Then she resumes her mask and slips 
into the crowd, but dropping her lace handkerchief 
as she goes. Louis XV. picks it up and, sultan-like, 
launches it with a gallant hand at the beautiful 
unknown. " The handkerchief is thrown," people 
mutter on all sides. 

Madame d'Etioles is about, then, to reach her goal. 
She has no reproach to make against her husband, by 
whom she has had two children : a son born in 1741, 
who only lived six months, and a daughter, Alexan- 
drine, born in 1743, who will live until 1754. This 
husband is an excellent man, gentle, affectionate, 
easy to live with, much in love with his wife, not at 
all jealous, happy and proud to be the husband of 
the prettiest woman in Paris. But what would you 
have ? Madame d'Etioles has taken it into her head 
to be the King's mistress. 'Tis a fantasy of a coquet- 
tish woman which she must absolutely realize. 

Taking advantage of her husband's stay in the 
country, and protected by one of her relatives, Bivet, 
valet de chambre to the Dauphin, she makes her way 
into the palace of Versailles and parades a romantic 
passion for Louis XV. She says she is menaced by 
M. d'Etioles' vengeance and begs the King to shelter 



THE MARQUISE BE POMPADOUR 121 

lier. The monarch is affected and installs her myste- 
riously in the chamber formerly occupied by Madame 
de Mailly. Poor M. d'Etioles, on his return to Paris, 
learns what has befallen him. He faints away at 
the fatal tidings, and afterwards writes his wife a 
letter so touching that Louis XV., after reading it, 
cannot avoid saying : " Madame, you have a very 
honest husband." In despair at first, the betrayed 
husband at last resigns himself. He does not try to 
contend with a king, and repairs philosophically to 
the south of France, to make an inspection into 
finances which is part of his official duties as deputy 
farmer-general. 

At court there is great commotion. It seems 
impossible to imagine that a woman of the middle 
classes, une robine, as D'Argenson says, can replace 
a great lady like the Duchess de Chateauroux. The 
Duke de Luynes writes in his Memoirs, March 11, 
1745 : " All the masked balls have given occasion 
for talk concerning the King's new amours, and 
principally of a Madame d'Etioles, who is young and 
pretty. It is said that for some time she is nearly 
always here, and that she is the King's choice. If 
such is the fact, it can hardly be anything more than 
a case of gallantry, and not of mistress." 

Louis XV., who is fond of mystery, amuses himself 
at first by being discreet. He conceals his new 
favorite. "It is not known where she is lodged," 
writes the Duke de Luynes, April 23, 1745, "but, 
nevertheless, I think it is in a little apartment that 



122 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

Madame de Mailly had, and which adjoins the little 
cabinets ; she does not live here all the time, but 
comes and goes to Paris." 

A few days later, May 5, 1745, the King sets off 
for the army with the Dauphin. But Madame d'Eti- 
oles has the good sense not to rejoin him there. Nor 
does she remain at Versailles, but withdraws to her 
chateau of Etioles, near Corbeil, where Voltaire and 
the Abb^ de Bernis keep her company. Louis XV., 
much more occupied with his new mistress than with 
the war, writes her letter upon letter. The Abb^ 
de Bernis counsels the favorite who, with such a 
secretary, cannot fail to reply to her royal lover in 
the most charming and gallantly turned epistles. 
We read in the Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes 
(June 19, 1745): "Madame d'Etioles is still in the 
country, near Paris, and has never wanted to go to 
Flanders. The King is more in love than ever; he 
writes and sends couriers to her at every moment." 

All France uttered a cry of enthusiasm on learn- 
ing the victory of Fontenoy (May 11, 1745). But 
could one believe it? The person first felicitated 
by Voltaire on accotint of that glorious day was 
neither Louis XV. nor Marshal de Saxe, but Madame 
d'Etioles. Before writing his poem on Fontenoy, the 
obsequious poet addressed the favorite in these 

stanzas : — 

" Quand Cesar, ce heros charmant, 
Dont tout Rome fut idolatre, 
Gagnait quelque combat brillant, 
On en faisait son compliment 
A la divine Cleoj)atre. 



THE MARQUISE BE POMPADOUR 123 

" Quant Louis, ce heros charmant, 
Dont tout Paris fait son idole, 
Gagne quelque combat brillant, 
On doit en faire compliment 
A la divine d'Etiole." ^ 

France, always maddened by success, is in a real 
delirium. The Parliament of Paris sends a deputa- 
tion to Lille to felicitate the King on his victory 
and entreat him "so far as may be, not to expose 
in future his sacred person, on wliich the welfare 
and safety of the State depend." All the supreme 
courts of the kingdom imitate that of Paris, and the 
first president of the court of taxes exclaims in his 
address to the King : " Your Majesty's conquests are so 
rapid that the point is how to safeguard the faith of 
our descendants and lessen the wonder of miracles, lest 
heroes should dispense themselves from following, 
and people from believing, in them." But the con- 
quest which chiefly preoccupies Louis XV. is that 
of his new mistress. 

In July, 1745, she proudly displays eighty amorous 
epistles from the gallant sovereign; the motto on 
the seal is : Discreet and faithful ; one of them is 

1 When Csesar, that charming hero, 
Whom all Eome idolized, 
Gained some brilliant combat, 
People complimented on it 
The divine Cleopatra. 

When Louis, that charming hero, 
Who is the idol of all Paris, 
Gains some brilliant combat, 
One must compliment on it 
The divine D'Etioles. 



124 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

addressed: A la Marquise de Pompadour^ and con- 
tains the brevet conferring this title. The new mar- 
quise instantly discards the name of Etioles, leaves 
off her husband's arms, substitutes three towers in 
their place, and puts her servants in grand livery. 
This marquisate enchants Voltaire ; he has become 
the official poet, courtier, and familiar of the favorite, 
and his complaisant muse thus celebrates the official 
accession of the new royal mistress : — 
" II salt aimer, il salt combattre ; 

II envoie en ce beau sejour 

Un brevet digtie d'Henri quatre, 

Signe : Louis, Mai'S et 1' Amour. 

Mais les ennemis out leur tour, 

Et sa valeur et sa prudence 

Donnent a Gand, le meme jour, 

Un brevet de ville de France. 

Ces deux brevets, si bien venus, 

Vivront tons deux dans la memoire. 

Chez lui, les autels de Venus 

Sont dans le temple de la Gloire." ^ 

The democrats, perhaps, are in a trifle too much 
of a hurry to erect a statue to Voltaire. 

1 He knows liow to love and how to fight ; 
He sends to this fair abode 
A brevet worthy of Henry Fourth, 
Signed : Louis, Mars, and Love. 
But the enemies liave their turn. 
And liis valor and his prudence 
Give to Ghent, the same day, 
A brevet as a French city. 
Tliese two brevets, so welcome. 
Will both survive in memory. 
With him the altars of Venus 
Are in the temple of Glory. 



Ill 

THE NEW MAKQUISE 

LOUIS XV. had had enough of gloiy. Impatient 
to meet again the new marquise, he left the 
army September 1, 1745, and returned to Versailles, 
where his mistress awaited him in the apartment 
once occupied by the Duchess de Chiiteauroux. 
This change of reign was effected in an official 
manner. There was no more attempt at mystery. 
The Marquise de Pompadour was presented September 
15, conformably to the rules of etiquette. Every 
tongue at court was wagging over this scandalous 
and ridiculous ceremony. Every one wondered how 
the Queen would look. The King, his wife, and his 
mistress thus exposed themselves to public view, 
and the ancient ceremonial became merely a parody. 
The Princess de Conti, whose debts and prodigalities 
seemed to condemn her to such complaisant rOles, 
was the lady who presented her. The Marquise 
appeared at first before the King, whose countenance 
betrayed an easily comprehended embarrassment. 
Then she entered the salon of the Queen and could 
not hide her confusion. 

125 



126 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

But Marie Leczinska, good and indulgent even to 
exaggeration, reassured Iier by a gracious reception. 
Naming one of the few aristocratic women with 
whom Madame de Pomj^adour was connected, she 
said : " Have you any news of Madame de Saissac ? 
I have been much pleased to see her sometimes in 
Paris." The Marquise, touched and grateful, know 
not what to answer. She reddened and stammered 
out: "Madame, I have the greatest passion to please 
you." 

The Abb^ de Bernis celebrated thus the new queen 
of Cythera : — 

" Tout va changer : les crimes d'un volage 
Ne seront plus eriges en exploits. 
La Pudeur seal obtiendra notre honimage, 
L'amour constant rentrera dans ses droits. 
L'exemple en est donue par le plus grand des rois, 
Et par la beaute la plus sage." ^ 

The choice of Louis XV. was thenceforward set- 
tled. The gallant monarch was about to plume him- 
self on fidelity. 

What do you think of this modesty and this dis- 
cretion? As Sainte-Beuve says, these poets have a 
way of taking things which belongs to them alone. 

1 All is about to change : the crimes of an inconstant 
No longer will be vaunted as exploits. 
Modesty alone will obtain our homage, 
Constant Love will resume his rights. 
The example of it is given by the greatest of kings 
And the most discreet of beauties. 



THE NEW MABQUISE 127 

There was plenty of adulation, but there was also 
plenty of fault-finding. The great ladies could not 
get used to seeing a hourgeoise occupy the post of 
King's mistress. They observed with malevolent 
and ever alert attention this improvised marquise 
who tried to give herself airs of nobility and gran- 
deur. They recalled the fact that her grandfather 
had been provision-contractor for the HQtel des 
Invalides. She is the granddaughter of a butcher, 
said they ; they jeered pitilessly about meat and fish ; 
they found her awkward in her part, like a grisette 
disguised as a marchioness. Exasperated at seeing 
at Versailles a royal mistress not of his choosing, the 
Duke de Richelieu tried, says Duclos, " to make the 
King consider her on the footing of a hourgeoise out 
of place, a passing gallantry, a simple amusement not 
adapted to remain worthily at court." If anything 
in her manners or her language was not perfectly 
well-bred, the favorite became the butt of sarcasm as 
soon as her back was turned. Louis XV. used to 
say : " It will amuse me to educate her." 

Madame de Pompadour had at all events the good 
sense to maintain a humble and submissive attitude 
when she appeared before the Queen. The rank and 
virtues of Marie Leczinska intimidated her. Here is 
a curious passage which occurs in the Memoirs of the 
Duke de Luynes : "Day before yesterday, as she was 
returning from Mass, Madame de Pompadour said to 
Madame de Luynes that she was in the keenest 
anxiety and most bitter sorrow; that she knew some- 



128 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

body had frightfully aspersed her to the Queen ; and, 
without explaining to what she referred, said she 
hoped greatly that the Queen would not believe it, 
and that she begged her to speak about it to her. 
Madame de Luynes instantly gave an account of 
this to the Queen." Here is the letter written to 
Madame de Pompadour by the Duchess de Luynes : 
"I have just been speaking to the Queen, Madame, 
and I earnestly entreated her to tell me frankly if she 
had anything against you ; she answered in the kindli- 
est way that she had not, and that she was even very 
sensible of your efforts to please her on all occasions ; 
she even desired me to write and tell you so." 

This is the reply of the Marquise : " You bring 
me to life again, Madame ; for three days I have 
been in unheard-of pain, as you will believe with- 
out difficulty, knowing as you do my attachment to 
the Queen. They have made frightful accusations 
against me to Monsieur and to Madame the Dauphin- 
ess, who have been kind enough to allow me to prove 
the falsity of the horrors they accuse me of. I had 
been told some days ago that the Queen had been 
prejudiced against me ; think of my despair, who 
would give my life for her, who find her goodness to 
me every day more precious. It is certain that the 
kinder she is to me, the more will the jealousy of the 
monsters of this place be employed in abusing me, 
unless she is so good as to be on her guard against 
them and will kindly let me know of what I am 
accused. It will not be difficult for me to justify 



THE NEW MARQUISE 129 

myself; the tranquillity of my soul on this subject 
assures me as much. I hope, Madame, that your 
friendship for me, and still more your knowledge of 
my character, will be the guarantees of what I am 
writing you. Doubtless you must be annoyed by 
such a long story; but my heart is so full that I 
cannot conceal it from you. You know my senti- 
ments toward you, Madame ; they will end only with 
my life" (February, 1746). 

We read again in the Memoirs of the Duke de 
Luynes (March, 1746) : "• Madame de Pompadour, 
who knows the Queen loves flowers, is so attentive 
as to send her bouquets as often as possible ; she 
continues to seek every occasion to please her." 

The Queen may have reflected that, after all, since 
a mistress was inevitable, this one was better than 
another. Since he had been directed by Madame de 
Pompadour, the King seemed in a less sombre temper 
and looked a little less bored. But he lost in the 
favorite's society the needful energy to continue the 
successes of the French arms, and sign a really 
glorious peace. 

While Louis XV. was thus wasting away in futili- 
ties. Marshal Saxe conquered all Belgium. Louis 
XV. never made his appearance at the army from 
May 4 to the middle of June, 1746, After having 
made a triumphal entry at Antwerp he hastened back 
to Versailles, apparently to be present when the 
Dauphiness was delivered, in reality to see Madame 
de Pompadour again. The Dauphiness died prema- 



130 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

turely in July. D'Argenson says she had become 
as good a Frenchwoman as if she had been born at 
Versailles. She was regretted, but the hurly-burly 
of festivities soon began again, and Louis XV., after 
a very short mourning, resumed his accustomed 
diversions and pretended pleasures. 

The successes of his troops were as brilliant as 
they were rapid. Never had France held better 
cards. It was a magnificent occasion to complete 
national unity in the North. But though they had 
known how to conquer they knew not how to profit 
by the victory. The King did not comprehend his 
mission. He was thinking more about Madame de 
Pompadour than about the M^ar, and while his sol- 
diers were fighting so bravely, he, wholly given up 
to frivolous trifles, was amusing himself, or, better, 
he was trying to do so. This nonchalance became 
fatal. All the fruits of the war were lost by the 
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 18, 1748). 

People had believed that Louis XV., who was 
master of all Belgium, of two Dutch provinces, of 
Savoy, and the county of Nice, would claim to retain 
at least a part of his conquests. But, to the general 
surprise, he declared he would not treat as a mer- 
chant, but as a king. This more than amazing phrase 
signified that France would demand nothing, noth- 
ing for so many dearly bought victories, nothing for 
the five hundred thousand men she had sacrificed, 
nothing for the twelve hundred millions added to 
the national debt. Louis XV. restored all the con- 



THE NEW MABQUISE 131 

quered cities and territories. He engaged not to 
rebuild the fortresses of Dunkirk; he recognized the 
English succession in the Protestaij^t^ine and carried 
complaisance toward the vanquished of Forrterrroy to 
the point of expelling the Pretender, the heroic 
Charles Edward, from France. Add to this that the 
French navy, like that of Spain, Avas half ruined, and 
that the time was not far distant when the sailor might 
salute the ocean as Britannic. It is true that the In- 
fant Philip, married to the eldest daughter of Louis 
XV., obtained the duchies of Parma and Plaisance. 
But this was but a petty advantage considered as a 
recompense for so many sacrifices of men and money. 

As might have been expected, the peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle was profoundly unpopular. " As stupid as 
the peace," people said in Paris. The odium of it 
was cast upon the woman who, to play her part as 
queen of the left hand, had meddled with diplomacy, 
finances, and the army. 

In 1746 Voltaire had written to Louis XV. : — 

" Grand roi, Londres gemit, Vienne pleure et t'admire. 
Ton bras va decider du destin de I'Empire. 
La Sardaigne balance et Munich se repent, 
Le Batave, indecis, au remords est en prole ; 
Et la France s'ecrie au milieu de sa joie : 
' Le plus aime des rois est aussi le plus grand ! ' " ^ 

1 Great King, London groans, Vienna weeps and admires thee. 
Thine arm is about to decide the fate of tlie Empire. 
Sardinia wavers, and Municli repents ; 
Batavia, undecided, is a prey to remorse ; 
And France exclaims amidst lier joy : 
"The best loved of Kings is also the greatest ! " 



132 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

Everything was greatly changed in 1748 ; London 
no longer groaned, and Vienna did not admire. 
There was neither repentance at Munich nor remorse 
at Batavia, and very little was said about the great- 
ness of the best beloved of Kings. The situation 
already contained in germ the disasters of the future 
Seven Years' War. France, which loves success, no 
longer compared Madame de Pompadour to la belle 
Crahrielle. But the favorite had one grand consola- 
tion under the rain of sarcasms and satires ; her 
theatre of the little Cabinets of Versailles was suc- 
ceeding very well ; and if she was hissed as a political 
woman, she was warmly applauded as an actress. 



MADAME DE POMPADOUE's THEATBE 

" "T~ HAVE seen all that is done under the sun, 
_i_ and beheld that all is vanity and vexation of 
spirit. I have said within myself: Let us take all 
manner of delights and let us enjoy our possessions ; 
and I have recognized that this too is vanity. I have 
condemned the laughter of folly and I have cried 
unto joy : Why dost thou deceive us vainly ? " 

What the Preacher thought, Louis XV. thought 
also. Like Solomon, he was bored. His ennui was 
the terror of Madame de Pompadour. The problem 
she had to solve was how to entertain a man who 
could no longer be amused. The favorite trembled. 
Here was her favor barely begun, and already she 
beheld symptoms of indifference and lassitude in her 
royal lover. D'Argenson writes in 1747 : " The 
Pompadour is about to be dismissed. The King will 
live with his family." The Marquise was afraid lest 
the sovereign, who really had a badly understood 
but sincere religion at bottom, might some day 
conclude to be truly devout. Hence she desired at 
any cost to divert him from serious ideas and plunge 

133 



134 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

him, in his own despite, into the vortex of false 
pleasures whose emptiness and poverty he knew so 
well. 

Even amid the splendors of Versailles, the new 
Marquise regretted her successes as a private actress. 
The echo of the applause she had become accustomed 
to in the parlor theatres of M. Lenormand de Tour- 
nehem, at Etioles, and of Madame de Villemur, at 
Chantemerle, still resounded in her flattered ears. 
Those who are habituated to the emotions and vani- 
ties of the stage cannot easily do without them. 
Madame de Pompadour was homesick for the foot- 
lights and the boards. To play in comedy is such a 
fine occasion for a pretty woman to shine ! To see 
all eyes fixed on her ; to put beauty and her toilettes 
in the best lights ; to be greeted when she appears 
by a murmur of admiration; to receive when the 
play is ended the rain of flowers and garlands that 
tumble at her feet; and at last, when the actress 
resumes the grande dame and re-enters the drawing- 
room, to glean compliments, madrigals, and enthusi- 
astic plaudits afresh, — wdiat a triumph for a fashion- 
able woman, what exquisite joy for a coquette ! 

Women of the highest social rank are often jealous 
of actresses. It annoys them to perceive that they 
have not that order of charms which comediennes 
possess. They envy them the privilege of attracting 
the attention of a whole theatre, of being the object 
of all regards, the subject of all eulogies, and the 
ability to say to a lover after a triumph: "I have 



MADAME BE POMPADOUR'S THEATRE 135 

played only for you, I have thought of you alone ; 
these flowers that have been thrown to me I give to 
you." They envy them the excitement of those 
noisy ovations, in comparison with which all the 
flatteries of society seem tame. They envy them 
above all that faculty of metamorphosis which trans- 
forms the same woman into a shepherdess or a queen, 
a nymph or a goddess, so that a man while adoring 
a single beauty, but a beauty incessantly changed 
and transfigured, finds himself at once faithful and 
inconstant. 

This is why Madame de Pompadour wanted to 
play comedy at Versailles. Little by little she ac- 
customed Louis XV. to this idea. Holy Week was 
always a sad time for the monarch, who was tortured 
by remorse and ashamed of playing so badly his 
part as eldest son of the Church. The favorite con- 
ceived the notion of enlivening this dreaded week 
by interludes, half religious, half profane. Accom- 
panied by actors and amateurs, she sang pieces of 
sacred music. This Lent a la Pompadour, this mix- 
ture of church and opera, this exchange of religions 
for chamber, not to say alcove, music, was very 
acceptable to such a character as Louis XV. and a 
devotion as inconsistent and spurious as his. The 
courtiers, of course, went into ecstasies over the 
charming voice of the Marquise. They reminded 
the King of the triumphs of the little theatres at 
Etioles and Chantemerle, and pitied him for not 
having seen comedy played by so remarkable an 



136 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

actress. Sacred music had served its time ; another 
sort was now in order. 

Madame de Pompadour achieved her purpose. A 
theatre was constructed for her at Versailles, — a 
miniature theatre, an elegant little place, a perfect 
gem.i The spot chosen was the gallery contiguous 
to the former Cabinet of Medals, a dependence of 
the King's small apartments (room N.o. 137 of the 
Notice du Musee de Versailles^ by M. Eudore Souli^). 
Nearly one-third of the orchestra was composed of 
amateurs belonging to the most illustrious families, 
the other two-thirds being professional artists. The 
chorus singers were selected among the King's musi- 
cians. The dancers were boys and girls from nine 
to thirteen years at most, who, on reaching the latter 
age, were to enter the ballet corps of the opera, the 
Theatre Frangais, or the Comc^die-Italienne (the 
little girls distinguished themselves later on in chore- 
graphic shows and gallantry). Celebrated painters, 
Boucher at their head, supplied the decorations. 
The mise en scene and the costumes were of incom- 
parable elegance. As to the actors and actresses, 
they bore such names as the Duke de Chartres, the 
Duke d'Ayen, the Duke de Duras, the Duke de 
Nivernais, the Duke de Coigny, the Marquis d'En- 
traigues, the Count de Maillebois, the Duchess de 



1 See the accurate and interesting little work by M. Adolphe 
Julien : Histoire du TMcitre de Mme. de Fompadour, dit Thed,tre 
des petits cabmets, with an etching by Martial after Boucher. 



MADAME BE POMPADOUR'S THEATBE 137 

Brancas, the Marquise Livry, the Countess d'Es- 
trades, Madame de Marchais, and finally, the principal 
actress, the Armida of all these enchantments, the 
Marquise de Pompadour. The Duke de La Valliere 
was chosen as director of the troupe ; as sub-director 
VJiistoriogriffe of cats, Moncrif, academician and 
reader to the Queen ; as secretary and prompter, the 
Abbe de La Garde, librarian to the Marquise. 
Madame de Pompadour drew up the regulations for 
the players. As approved by the King, they con- 
tained ten articles : — 

" 1. In order to be admitted as an associate, it will 
be necessary to prove that this is not the first time 
that one has acted, so as not to make one's novitiate 
in the troupe. 

" 2. Every one shall choose his own line of charac- 
ters. 

" 3. No one may choose a different line from that 
for which he has been accepted, without obtaining 
the consent of all the associates. 

" 4. One cannot, in case of absence, appoint his 
substitute (a right expressly reserved to the Society 
which will appoint by an absolute majority). 

" 5. On his return, the person replaced will resume 
his own line. 

" 6. No associate can refuse a part appropriate to 
his line under pretext that such a part is unsuitable 
to his manner of acting or too fatiguing. 

" 7. The actresses alone have the right to select 
the pieces to be represented by the troupe. 



138 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

" 8. Tliey shall also have the right to fix the day 
of representation, the number of rehearsals, and the 
da3^s and hours when they shall occur. 

" 9. Each actor is bound to be present at the pre- 
cise hour appointed for the rehearsal under penalty 
of a fine which the actresses alone shall determine 
among themselves. 

" 10. To the actresses alone a half-hour's grace is 
accorded, after which the fine they will have incurred 
shall be decided by themselves only. 

"A copy of these statutes will be given to each 
secretary, who shall be bound to fetch it to each 
rehearsal." 

Madame de Pompadour was quite right in drawing 
up a severe code of regulations, for it is not an easy 
thing to establish discipline in a troupe composed of 
society people, where the intrigues of the courtier 
are added to the vanity of the actor. What petty 
jealousies, what mean vanities! What manoeuvres 
to obtain this or that part, what solicitations and 
cabals to ensure merely a spectator's place in the 
coenaculum ! 

Louis XV. occupied himself seriously with such 
trifles. The direction of this miniature theatre 
gave him no fewer cares than the government of 
France. He reserved to himself the right of select- 
ing the spectators, and it was a signal favor to have 
been thus chosen. Notwithstanding their ardent 
desire to be among the privileged persons, neither 
Marshal de Noailles, the Duke de Gesores, nor the 



MADAME BE POMPADOUR' 8 THEATRE 139 

Prince de Conti were admitted to the opening of 
the theatre. It took place January 17, 1747. Tar- 
tuffe was given. Madame de Pompadour played 
Dorine. The first theatrical season of the little 
cabinets lasted until March 17. 

After having secured applause as an actress in 
Tartuffe, Les Trois Cousines, and Le Prejuge a la 
Mode, the Marquise triumphed as a cantatrice in 
Erigone : " Madame de Pompadour sang very well," 
says the Duke de Luynes ; " her voice has not much 
volume, but a very agreeable sound ; she knows 
music well and sings with much taste." 

The second theatrical season lasted from Decem- 
ber 20, 1747, to March 30, 1748. The first repre- 
sentation comprised a comedy, Le Mariage fait et 
rompu, and a pastoral, Ismene, the words by Mon- 
crif. Voltaire's Enfant prodigue was given Decem- 
ber 20, to the author's great joy. Madame de 
Pompadour had promised Gresset to produce Le 
Merchant. She kept her word. The play required 
two months of study. It was given February 
6, 1748, Madame de Pompadour playing Lisette. 
The Duke de Nivernais was excellent as Val^re, 
and the Duke de Chartres took the part of 
Gdronte. The grateful Gresset thanked the Mar- 
quise thus : — 

" On ne trace que sur le sable 
La parole vague et peu stable 
De tous les seigneurs de la cour ; 
Mais sur le bronze inalterable 



140 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Les Muses ont trace le nom de Pompadour 
Et sa parole invariable." ^ 

Pastorals, opera ballets, comedies, succeeded each 
other quickly. (The complete list may be found 
in the opuscule of M. Adolphe Julien.) The usual 
spectators were those of the actors and actresses 
"who were not playing, Marshal Saxe, Marshal de 
Duras, all the ministers. President H^nault, the 
Abb^ de Bernis. The King did not have a fauteuil. 
He sat in an ordinary chair and, according to the 
Duke de Luynes, he seemed to be amused. 

The Marquise was charming in the ballet of 
Almases. She had a splendid costume : a low-cut 
corsage of pink taffeta trimmed with silver wire, 
a petticoat of the same, pinked out with silver, 
opening over a second petticoat of white taffeta 
pinked out and embroidered in rose color; the man- 
tle draping the whole was of white taffeta glazed 
with silver and embroidered in flowers of their 
natural color. 

The first dancer of the troupe was the Marquis 
de Courtenvaux ; the second. Count de Langeron. 
Others were the Duke de Beuvron and Count de 
Melfort, to whom were adjoined a ballet corps com- 
posed of young boys and little girls. Mesdemoiselles 

1 One traces but on sand 
The vague and unstable promises 
Of all the nobles of the court ; 
But on imperishable bronze 
The Muses have have traced the name of Pompadour 
And her invariable promise. 



MADAME BE POMPADOUR'S THEATRE 141 

Gaussin and Dumesnil, of the Come(iie-Fran9aise, 
gave advice to the actresses. 

Under the title of Comedies et ballets des petites 
apartements, a collection was published, bearing on 
its title-page a notice that it was "Printed by 
express command of His Majesty." Many were 
displeased by this, especially the courtiers who were 
not admitted to the much-envied entertainments. 
The Marquis d'Argenson, who for some time had 
ceased to be minister of foreign affairs, wrote March 
1, 1748, in his Danubian peasant style : " They have 
just published a very ridiculous collection of the 
divertisements of the theatre of the cabinets or small 
apartments of His Majesty, — wretched and flatter- 
ing lyrics; one finds in it dancing and singing 
actors, general officers and buffoons, great court 
ladies and theatre girls. In fact, the King spends 
his time nowadays in seeing the Marquise and the 
other personages trained by all these professional 
actors, who familiarize themselves with the monarch 
in an impious and sacrilegious fashion." 

In October, 1748, France had lost, by the treaty 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, an opportunity to enlarge its 
dominions. Louis XV. consoled himself by enlarg- 
ing, if not the realm, at least the theatre of the 
little cabinets. A new hall was constructed in 
the space containing the great staircase of the Am- 
bassadors,^ care being taken to injure neither the 

^ This staircase, which led to the large apartments of the King, 
was destroyed in 1750. The present staircase in the wing of the 
palace was constructed on the side of it. 



142 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

marble nor the pictures. The new theatre was 
movable. Fourteen hours were necessary to strip 
it, and twenty-four to set it up again. It was opened 
November 27, 1748, by the Surprises de Vamour, a 
play due to the collaboration of Gentil-Beniard, 
Moncrif, and De Rameau. The hall was a master- 
piece of elegance. But Louis XV. was not amused. 
He yawned. The grand opera of Tancred was given 
December 10, Madame de Pompadour singing the 
part of Herminie. Two days later Quinault's Mere 
coquette was played. The really indefatigable Mar- 
quise took the part of Laurette. She made a suc- 
cess, even according to D'Argenson, her implacable 
enemy, who wrote, not without vexation : " The 
King, who was said to be tired of the favorite 
sultana, is more insane than ever about her. She 
has sung and played so well in the last ballets at 
Versailles that the King praised her publicly, and 
caressing her before everybody, said to her that 
she was the most charming woman in France." 

The beginning of 1749 was signalized by the great 
quarrel between the dukes of Richelieu and La 
Valliere. The Duke de Richelieu was one of the 
four first gentlemen of the chamber who, in virtue 
of their charge, had the grand apartments of the 
King under their jurisdiction. Now the new theatre 
was constructed in the space occupied by the great 
stairway of the Ambassadors, which was considered 
an integral part of the grand apartments. Conse- 
quently, the first gentlemen of the chamber claimed 



MADAME BE POMPADOUB'S THEATRE 143 

that tlie right to direct the theatre appertained to 
that one of themselves who was on duty, and that 
the Duke de La Valliere infringed upon this right. 
The Duke d'Aumont, who was on duty in 1748, 
raised the question, but somewhat timidly. Madame 
de Pompadour mentioned the matter to Louis XV., 
who contented himself with replying : " Let His 
Excellency" (the title he gave Richelieu) "come. 
You will see something quite different." 

His Excellency made his appearance at the be- 
ginning of 1749, and as soon as he took up his func- 
tions he began a desperate struggle against the Duke 
de La Valliere. 

"He made nothing of thwarting little Pompa- 
dour," wrote D'Argenson, " and treating her like an 
opera girl, having had great experience with that 
sort of women and with all women. Mistress as she 
is of the King and the court, he will torment and 
tire her out." 

But Richelieu went too far. Some days later, 
D'Argenson wrote in his journal : " M. de Richelieu 
is too much attached to the trifles of the ballet 
theatre. They say he has behaved like a fool ; he 
was too open in his antagonism to the mistress, and 
she has regained the upper hand. People consider 
her to count for as much or more than Cardinal 
Fleury in the government. Woe to any one who 
dares to pit himself against her at present ! She 
unites pleasure to decision, and the suffrages of the 
principal ministers to the force of habit which is con- 



144 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

stantly gaining strength in a mild and affectionate 
monarch. But woe to the state governed in this 
way by a coquette ! People are exclaiming on all 
hands. It is kicking against the pricks to revolt 
in any wise against her. Richelieu has found that 
out ; he ought to give up this trifling business of the 
ballet stage in order to pursue greater, more impor- 
tant, and more virtuous matters. It would have been 
enough for him to absent himself from these operas 
and to do so from pride, as soon as his charge was 
injuriously affected by them. The instructions he 
gave the musicians were thus worded : ' Such a person 
will be present at such an hour to play in Madame 
de Pompadour's opera.' He was worsted at every 
step. The real friends of those who made any pre- 
tensions advised them strongly to make their way by 
means of Madame the Marquise; homage must be 
paid to her." 

Like the majority of men too much favored by 
women, Richelieu resembled a spoiled child. He 
was stingy, proud, and wilful. However, he ended 
by yielding. When this quarrel of etiquette was 
at its height, Louis XV. carelessly asked him this 
simple question : " Richelieu, how many times have 
you been at the Bastille ? " — " Three times," re- 
sponded the audacious courtier. But he promised 
himself not to go a fourth time. He submitted, 
therefore, and the Duke de La Valliere, who re- 
mained director of the troupe, was rewarded for his 
patience by the blue ribbon. 



MADAME DE POMPADOUR'S THEATRE 145 

The third theatrical season ended March 22, 1749 ; 
it had cost at least a hundred thousand ecus. 
Louis XV., who was not always prodigal, began to 
find the expenses excessive. He did not get his 
money's worth in amusement. The fourth and last 
theatrical season of the little cabinets lasted from 
December 26, 1749, to April 27, 1750. 

Madame de Pompadour had successfully attempted 
comedy, opera, and ballet. She wanted to add an- 
other gem to her crown. After Thalia, Euterpe, and 
Terpsichore, it was now the turn of Melpomene. 
February 28, 1750, the Marquise played the part of 
Alzire. Voltaire, enraptured, went to thank her for 
her interpretation of his work, as she was at her 
toilette, and addressed her in this not very original 
impromptu : — 

" Cette Americaine parfaite 

Trop de larmes a fait couler. 

Ne pourrai-je me consoler 

Et voir Venus a sa toilette? " 

The King began to be bored by these incessant 
spectacles. He decided that there should be no 
more comedies, ballets, music, and dancing at Ver- 
sailles, and that hereafter the representations should 
take place at the Ch§,teau of Bellevue. The stage of 
this chateau was very small, and did not admit of a 



1 This perfect American 
Has caused too many tears to flow. 
Can I not console myself 
And see Venus at her toilette? 



146 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

brilliant mise en scene. The number of spectators 
had to be greatly restricted. Accustomed to a real 
theatre, splendid decorations, and a numerous audi- 
ence, the actors and actresses no longer showed the 
same enthusiasm. The hour of decadence had come. 
However, Jean Jacques Rousseau's Devin du Village 
was very successfully played in 1753. Madame de 
Pompadour took the part of Colette. The next day 
she sent fifty louis to Jean Jacques, who thanked her 
in the following letter : — 

" Paris, March 7, 1753. — Madame : In accepting 
this present, which has been sent me by you, I believe 
I have testified my respect for the hand from which 
it came, and I venture to add that of the two proofs 
you have made of my moderation, interest is not the 
most dangerous. I am with respect, etc." 

The Devin du Village was the Swan Song. 
Madame de Pompadour no longer pleased Louis XV. 
as an actress. Hence she closed the Bellevue theatre, 
and her ambition became, if not to amuse, at least to 
interest, as a political woman, the master whose mis- 
tress she was said to be. 



V 

THE GEANDEURS OF THE MARQUISE DE POMPADOUR 

LOUIS XV. had made his mistress what one 
might call a vice-queen. She had the power, 
luxury, riches, and adulations of royalty ; everything, 
in fact, except its moral prestige. Surrounded by a 
court of ministers, prelates, and nobles, she throned 
it in the midst of pomp and opulence. She was the 
type of the woman a la mode, elegant, coquettish, 
absolute, always on show, insatiable for praise and 
success, thirsting for dignities, pleasures, and money; 
playing not merely the great lady, but the sovereign, 
having her courtiers, her creatures, her poets, reign- 
ing alike over the King and the kingdom. 

M. Ars^ne Houssaye has said with justice : " Louis 
XV. had three prime ministers : Cardinal Fleury, 
the Duke de Choiseul, the Marquise de Pompadour." 
But the Marquise was not an ordinary prime minis- 
ter ; she was a prime minister doubled with a mistress. 
To a woman invested with this exaggerated rSle, a 
display of power was necessary. The favorite set 
herself to create around her a sort of decorum, eti- 
quette, and factitious grandeur. Like little women 

147 



148 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

who wear enormously high heels, she made herself a 
pedestal. Madame d'Etioles had disappeared ; noth- 
ing remained but the Marquise de Pompadour. To 
be a marchioness did not satisfy her, and she de- 
manded and obtained the tabouret and the honors of 
a duchess. She had a box at the court theatre with 
a grating behind which she shut herself up t6te-a-tete 
with the King. In the chapel a gallery in the grand 
tribune was reserved for her and her suite. People 
waited on her stairway at the hour of her toilette 
just as they await a ministerial audience in an ante- 
chamber. She used to say to the ministers : " Con- 
tinue ; I am satisfied with you," and to the foreign 
ambassadors : " Observe that on Tuesdays the King 
cannot see you, gentlemen, for I think you will 
hardly follow us to Compiegne." 

One of the cabinets in her apartment was full of 
petitions. Solicitors approached her with respectful 
fear. The ducal mantle and velvet cap figured on 
the panels of her carriages. A nobleman carried her 
mantle and awaited her coming in the ante-chamber. 
A man of illustrious birth, a Chevalier d'H^nen, of 
the family of the Princes de Chimay, rode at her 
carriage door as equerry. She was served at table by 
a Chevalier of Saint Louis, her steward Colin, a nap- 
kin under his arm. Her chambermaid was a woman 
of quality, Madame du Hausset, who has left such 
curious Memoirs. The all-powerful favorite had not 
forgotten her family. Her father was ennobled in 
1747. Her brother, Abel Poisson, became succes- 



THE GRANDEURS OF THE MARQUISE 149 

sively Marquis de Vandieres, Marquis de Marigny, 
Marquis de Menars. The marquisate not contenting 
him, he obtained a place created for Colbert, that of 
superintendent of crown buildings. He was as a 
patron of artists a Mecsenas, an arbiter elegantiarum. 
The King, who treated him as his brother-in-law, gave 
him the blue ribbon and put him on an equality with 
the greatest nobles of the realm. Young Alexan- 
drine, the daughter of Madame de Pompadour and 
M. de Etioles, was brought up at Paris in the convent 
of the Assumption. 

The nuns showed her the greatest attention. She 
was addressed by her baptismal name, as was then the 
custom for princesses of the blood, and she was ex- 
pected to make one of the most brilliant marriages in 
France. Madame de Pompadour desired pomp even 
in death. She bought a splendid sepulchre in the 
Capuchin convent in the Place Vend6me, Paris, from 
the Tr^moille family. There she built a magnificent 
mausoleum, where her mother was interred and where 
she reserved a place for herself.^ 

The favorite had not simply power, but beauty; 
beauty, that supreme weapon. A veritable magician, 
she transformed herself at will. As mobile as the 
clouds, as changeful as the wave, she renewed and 
metamorphosed herself incessantly. No actress knew 
better than she how to compose an attitude or a coun- 



1 See the learned and remarkable work of M. Campardon : 
Madame de Pompadour et la cour de Louis XV.., 1 vol., Plon. 



150 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

tenance. In her whole person there was an exquisite 
grace, an exceptional charm, a taste, an elegance which 
amounted to subtlety. La Tour, the pastel painter, 
is he who has best reproduced her animated, spir- 
ituelle, triumphant physiognomy, the eyes full of 
intelligence and audacity, the satin skin, the sup- 
ple figure, the general harmony, the charming and 
coquettish whole. 

All the splendors of luxury were like a frame to 
the picture. A new Danae, the Marquise disap- 
peared under a shower of gold. It is known exactly 
what she cost France from September 9, 1745, the 
time when her favor began, until April 15, 1764, the 
day of her death. M. Le Roy has discovered an 
authentic document,^ containing an account of the 
favorite's expenses during this period of nearly 
twenty years. The total is 35,924,140 livres. In 
this list of expenses is found the pension granted 
to Madame Lebon for having predicted to the Mar- 
quise, then only nine years old, that she would one 
day be the mistress of Louis XV. 

Nothing- seemed fine enoua^h for Madame de 
Pompadour, either in dress, lodgings, or furniture. 
At Versailles she secured for herself on the ground 
floor, on the terrace looking toward the parterre on 
the north, the magnificent apartments occupied by 
the Duke and Duchess de Penthievre.^ (Part of the 

1 Curiosites historiqiies, par M. Le Roy, 1 vol., Plon. 

2 See rooms 56, 57, 58, 59 of M. Soulie's Notice of the Museum 
of Versailles. No. 57 was the bedroom of the Marquise, No. 58 
her study. 



THE GRANDEUBS OF THE MARQUISE 151 

ministry of foreign affairs is established there at pres- 
ent. Tlie minister's study is the same as that of 
Madame de Pompadour. Her bedchamber is now 
the thirteenth hall of the marshals, her ante-chamber 
the hall of famous warriors.) 

The favorite bought a superb house in the city 
communicating by a passage with the apartments of 
the palace (it is now the hOtel des Reservoirs). In 
1748 she acquired the chateau of Ci^cy and the 
estate of Aunay, and in 1749 the chateau of La 
Celle, near Versailles. In 1750 she inaugurated, 
on the hill commanding the Seine, between Sevres 
and Meudon, that enchanting abode of Bellevue, 
where all the arts rivalled each other to create a 
magic entity. The ante-chamber with statues by 
Adam and Falconnet; the dining-room with paint- 
ings of game and fish by Oudry ; the salon decorated 
by Vanloo ; the apartment of the Marquise, hung 
with Boucher's glowing pictures; the park with its 
parterres of rare flowers, its fine trees, grottos, and 
fountains, its statues by Pigalle and Coustou, its 
varied perspectives, its immense horizons, — all made 
of Bellevue a real palace of Armida. At Versailles, 
the Marquise obtained from the King a portion of 
the little park wherein to construct a gem of archi- 
tecture, which she called the Hermitage ; it cloaked 
extreme elegance under an appearance of simplicity. 
It had fine Persian hangings, panelled wainscotings 
decorated by the most skilful painters, thickets of 
myrtles, lilacs, and roses. This habitation is no 



152 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

longer in existence ; a part of its site is occupied by 
the rue de I'Ersmitage at Versailles. The Marquise 
had a house at Compiegne and a lodge at Fontaine- 
bleau. At Paris she bought, for seven hundred and 
thirty thousand livres, the hOtel d'Evreux, which is 
now the Elysde. 

At the Trianon her apartment was on the same 
floor with that of Louis XV. At Ciecy she received 
as if in a royal chateau. The King's visits to this 
splendid residence used to last three or four days, 
and cost about one hundred thousand livres. 

A woman so influential could not fail to have 
a swarm of flatterers. The resources of fawning 
and hyperbole were exhausted in her favor. The 
most exaggerated of her sycophants was Voltaire — 
Voltaire to whom the republicans are nowadays 
raising statues. He treated the Marquise as a 
superior being, a goddess, and pushed his flattery 
to absurdity, to platitude. In 1745, the moment 
when the reign of the favorite began, he sent her 
this compliment : — 

" Sincere et tendre Pompadour 
(Car je peux vous donner d'avance 
Ce iiom qui rime avec ram our 
Et qui sera bientot le plus beau nom de France), 
Ce tokai dont Votre Excellence 
,Dans Etioles me regala, 
N'a-t-il pas quelque ressemblance 
Avec le roi qui le donna ? 
II est, comme lui, sans melange ; 



THE GBANBEUBS OF THE MARQUISE 153 

II unit, comme lui, la force a la douceur, 
Plait aux yeux, enchante le coeur. 
Fait du bien et jamais ne change." ^ 

In 1746, when Marshal de Lowendal had just taken 
Berg-Op-Zoom, it was Madame de Pompadour whom 
Voltaire felicitated on the victory, in strains like 
these : — 

" Les esprits, et les coeurs, et les remparts terribles, 
Tout cede h ses efforts, tout flechit sous sa loi, 
Et Berg-Op-Zoom et vous, vous etes invincibles ; 

Vous n'avez cede qu'k mon roi. 
II vole dans vos bras du sein de la Victoire, 
Le prix de ses travaux n'est que dans votre coeur. 

Rien ne peut augmenter sa gioire, 

Et vous augmentez son bonheur."^ 

1 Sincere and tender Pompadour 

(For I can give you in advance 

This name which rliymeth with amour 
And soon will be the finest name in France), 

This tokay with wliich Your Excellence 

At Etioles regaled me, 

Beareth it not some resemblance 

Unto the King who gave it thee ? 

It is, like him, without melange, 
Joins strength to mildness, pleasant art, 

Pleases the eyes, enchants the heart, 

Does good and never knoweth change. 

2 Spirits and hearts and ramparts terrible. 
All to his efforts yield, all bend beneath his law, 
And Berg-Op-Zoom and you, you are invincible ; 

You have submitted only to my King. 
'Tis to your aritns he flies from Victory's breast, 
Finds in your heart the guerdon of his toUs. 

His glory nothing can augment, 

And you augment his happiness. 



154 TEE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The Marquise rewarded Voltaire at the end of the 
same year by producing the Enfant prodigue in the 
theatre of the little cabinets, and taking the part of 
Lise herself. It was then that the poet, beside him- 
self with joy, addressed the beautiful actress the 
following lines, which exasperated the daughters of 
Louis XV. and dissatisfied the King himself : — 

" Ainsi done, vous reunissez 

Tous les arts, tous les dons de plaire ; 

Pojiipadour, vous embellissez 

La cour, le Parnasse et Cythere. 
Charme de tous les yeux, tresor d'un seul mortel, 

Que votre araour soit eternel ! 

Que tous vos jours soient marques par des fetes ! 
Que de nouveaux succes marquent ceux de Louis ! 

Vivez tous deux sans ennemis 

Et gardez tous deux vos conquetes ! " ^ 

So many madrigals were not enough. Both verse 
and prose were needed. In addressing to the Mar- 
quise a copy of the Precis du siecle de Louis XV. 
Voltaire inserted in it a passage, gravely congratulat- 



' So then, you reunite 

All arts, all gifts to please ; 

Pompadour, you embellish 

The court, Parnassus, and Cythera. 
Charm of all eyes, treasure of one alone, 

May your love be eternal ! 

May all your days be marked by festivals ! 
May new successes mark the days of Louis ! 

May you both live devoid of enemies 

And both preserve your conquests. 



THE GBANDEUBS OF THE MARQUISE 155 

ing her upon that treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which 
had so grievously offended the national sentiment : — 

" It must be owned that Europe may date its 
felicity from the day of this peace. People will 
learn with surprise that it was the result of the 
urgent counsels of a young lad}- of high rank, cele- 
brated for her charms, her singular talents, her wit, 
and an envied position. It was the destiny of Europe 
in this long quarrel that a woman began it and a 
woman ended it. The second has bestowed as many 
benefits as the first caused harm." 

Can one be surprised, after this, that Madame de 
Pompadour should have been persuaded of her own 
merit, wit, and even genius ; that she cherished 
strange illusions concerning her rOle and her charac- 
ter; that she took herself seriously, even tragically; 
that she regarded any adverse criticism of her as 
high treason against beauty and majesty ? 

With such an array of luxury and power, such a 
mass of riches, jewels, objects of art, such a court 
of ingenious and amiable courtiers, with all that 
could soothe her vanity, coquetry, and pride, with 
the ability to realize all her fancies and caprices, 
one might perhaps think the favorite was happy. 
Well! no. 



VI 

THE GKIEFS OF THE MAHQUISE DE POMPADOUR 

" "y PITY you much, Madame, while all the world 
_L envies you." The person who addressed this 
just remark to the Marquise de Pompadour was her 
inseparable confidant, her lady's maid, Madame du 
Hausset, the woman to whom she told everything, 
whom she always kept near her, and to whom she 
said : " The King and I rely on you so fully that we 
pay no more attention to you than to a cat or dog, 
but go right on talking." The Marquise recognized 
the truth of her confidant's melancholy words: 
" Ah ! " she answered, " my life is like that of a 
Christian : a perpetual combat." Strange compari- 
son ! Most inexact comparison ! for the Christian 
combats for God, while the favorite was combating 
for the devil. This, in fact, was the cause of her 
sadness. The love of God consoles one for all sacri- 
fices ; but woe to the woman who makes herself the 
slave of a man ! Madame de Pompadour placed no 
confidence in Louis XV., and she was right. The 
Mar^chale de Mirepoix said to her one day : " It is 
your staircase that the King likes; he is used to 

156 



THE GRIEFS OF THE MARQUISE 157 

going up and down it. But if he found another 
woman to whom he could talk about his hunting and 
his affairs, it would be all the same to him at the end 
of three days." 

Listen to Madame du Hausset. She says in her 
Memoirs : " Madame experienced many tribulations 
amidst all her grandeurs. Anonymous letters were 
often written her containing threats to poison or 
assassinate her ; but what affected her most was the 
dread of being supplanted by a rival. I never saw 
her in greater vexation than one evening on her 
return from the salon of Marly. On entering, she 
spitefully threw down her muff and mantle, and 
undressed with extreme haste ; then, sending away 
her other women, she said to me. after they went out : 
' I don't believe anything can be more insolent than 
that Madame de Coaslin. I had to play hrelan at 
the same table with her this evening, and you cannot 
imagine what I suffered. The men and women 
seemed to take turns in coming to examine us. Two 
or three times Madame de Coaslin said, looking at 
me : " Va tout,''^ in the most insulting manner, and I 
thought I should be ill when she said in a triumphant 
tone : " I have played kings ! " I wish you had seen 
her courtesy on quitting me ! ' " Thereupon Madame 
du Hausset inquired what the master's attitude 
had been. "You don't know him, my dear," re- 
plied the Marquise ; " if he were going to put her 
in my apartment this evening he would treat her 
coldly before people, and me with the greatest affec- 



158 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

tion." The favorite was in constant alarm and anxi- 
ety. She believed in neither the loyalty, the love, 
nor the friendship of the King. Thus, as has been 
wittily said by M. Paul de Saint- Victor : " She spent 
her life in the attitude of Scheherezade, sitting beside 
the bed where the caliph slept, his sabre at hand. 
Like the head of the sultana, her favor depended on 
a caprice of the master, on the gay or tiresome story 
which she was about to tell him. And what happens 
in the thousand and one nights of the harem from 
which she is excluded ? Who knows whether a 
firman scrawled by a grisette may not exile her 
to-morrow to the depths of a province ? " In spite 
of her knowledge of frivolous trifles and her array 
of seductions, the Marquise could not succeed in 
diverting Louis XV. It is again Madame du Hausset 
who tells us as much : " The King was habitually 
very dismal and liked everything which recalled the 
thought of death, even though he feared it very 
much." This melancholy humor of the monarch 
distressed his mistress. " What a singular pleasure," 
said she, " to occupy one's self with things the very 
notion of which ought to be banished, especially 
when one leads such a happy life ! " Madame de 
Pompadour did not reflect when she talked like this. 
She forgot that a debauchee can never be happy long. 
The sovereign and his favorite were both suffering 
from the same malady; their consciences Avere not 
at rest. To both of them might be applied the 
verses addressed by Lucretius to the Epicurean youth 



TEE GRIEFS OF THE MAEQUISE 159 

of Rome, which we translate as foUov/s : " They 
inhale sweet perfumes ; they deck themselves with 
wreaths and garlands ; but from the middle of the 
fount of pleasures rises bitterness, and sharp thorns 
pierce through the flowers ; remorse rebukes them 
from the depths of their soul and reproaches them 
with days lost in idleness." 

Of what use then were luxury and splendor to 
her ? The Marquise was greeted by adulations in all 
her chateaux, all her houses. Nowhere did she find 
esteem. To tell the truth, all this array of factitious 
grandeur, all this pretence at decorum, was but a 
parody. Do what she might, the mistress of Louis 
XV. was in reality nothing but the first kept woman 
in the kingdom. Loaded and overwhelmed with 
proofs of royal munificence, she never called herself 
satisfied; ambition, like sensual pleasure, is insatiable. 
The love of money and the love of flattery never 
say : " It is enough ! " 

The sumptuous abodes the favorite found means 
to acquire were, after all, but monuments of her 
shame. Her house at Paris (now the Elysde) was 
styled the palace of the queen of courtesans, cedes 
regince meretricum. When the equestrian statue of 
Louis XV., with its four allegorical figures sculptured 
by Pigalle, was set up in the Place Louis XV., the 
crowd pointing out to each other these emblems of 
Force, Prudence, Justice, Love of Peace, said they 
were the four most famous mistresses of the monarch : 
Mesdames de Mailly, de Vintimille, de Ch^teauroux, 



160 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

and de Pompadour, and a paper containing these 
verses was posted on the statue itself : — 

" Grotesque monument, inf ame piedestal ; 
Les Vertus sont k pied, et le vice k cheval." ^ 

The honors heaped on her family by the all-power- 
ful Marquise were not taken seriously. When her 
mother, Farmer-General Lenormand de Tournehem's 
mistress, died, this quatrain was circulated : — 

" Ci-git qui, sortant d'un fumier. 
Pour faire sa fortune entiere, 
Vendit son honneur au fermier 
Et sa fiUe au proprietaire." ^ 

When her brother, Abel Poisson, metamorphosed 
into Marquis de Marigny and superintendent of the 
crown buildings, had received the blue ribbon of the 
Holy Spirit, people said the fish was turning blue. 

In 1754 Madame de Pompadour had the misfor- 
tune of losing her only daughter, Alexandrine 
d'Etioles, who was only eleven years old. She would 
have liked to marry her to young De Vintimille, who 
passed as the son of Louis XV. One day she 
brought the two children together, as if accidentally, 
at Bellevue, and showing them to the King, said 

1 Grotesque monument, infamous pedestal ; 

The Virtues are on foot, and vice on horseback. 

2 Here lies she who, starting from a dungheap. 
In order to make her fortune complete. 
Sold her honor to the farmer, 

And her daughter to the proprietor. • 



THE GRIEFS OF THE MARQUISE 161 

to him : " That would be a fine couple." Louis 
XV. received this overture more than coldly. 
Madame de Pompadour said afterwards to Madame 
du Hausset : " If he were a Louis XIV., he would 
make a Duke du Maine of the child, but I do 
not ask so much as that; a position and a ducal 
title is very little for his son, and it is because 
he is his son that I prefer him, my dear, to all the 
little dukes of the court. My grandchildren would 
share a resemblance to both grandfather and grand- 
mother, and this blending which I expect to see 
will one day be my happiness." — " Tears came to 
her eyes in saying these words," adds Madame du 
Hausset. 

Sainte-Beuve has poured witty contempt on this 
adulterous dream. " It seems to me," says the prince 
of critics, " that one lights unexpectedly on the per- 
verted but persistent bourgeois vein in this wish of 
Madame de Pompadour ; she brings ideas of affec- 
tion and family arrangements even into her adulter- 
ous combinations. She has sentiments; she thinks 
of herself already as a most affectionate grand- 
mother. A picture, which I would call a Greuze- 
Pompadour, might be made of this scene, the Mar- 
quise tearfully pointing out the two children to 
the King." 

The favorite found it hard to renounce her cher- 
ished project of this alliance. Afterwards she 
thought of the young Duke de Fronsac, Richelieu's 
son, as a husband for her daughter. She caused 



162 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

overtures to be made to the celebrated courtier. He 
answered by a disguised refusal. "My son," said he, 
"has the honor of belonging, on his mother's side, to 
the house of Lorraine ; hence I cannot dispose of him 
without the consent of that family, but I shall proceed 
to demand it urgently if the Marquise still persists 
in her intentions." 

Madame de Pompadour understood, and insisted 
no further. She planned another marriage for her 
daughter, who was promised to the young Duke de 
Pecquigny, son of the Duke de Chaulnes of the De 
Luynes family. But Mademoiselle d'Etioles died 
prematurely at the very time when the marriage was 
about to be contracted. She was buried in the sep- 
ulchre her mother had bought from an illustrious 
family. " The bones of the La Tremoille," said the 
Princess de Talmond, " must have been must aston- 
ished at finding fish bones (les aretes des Poissoii) 
near them." 

We have seen the disgusting flatteries of which 
the Marquise was the object. These hyperboles of 
interested praise had a terrible counterpart. While 
the court was obsequious, Paris remained implacable. 
There was an incessant succession of sneers, satires, 
and invectives. There had been mazarinades of old ; 
now there were poissonades. Minister Maurepas was 
the instigator and often the author of these violent 
rhymed diatribes, which made people say France 
was an absolute monarchy tempered by ballads. The 
masses avenged themselves by refrains of more than 



THE GRIEFS OF THE MARQUISE 163 

Gallic animation. We cite one among a thousand. 
It was sung to the air Trembleurs d'Isis : — 

" Les grands seigneurs s'avilissent, 
Les financiers s'enrichissent, 
Et les Poissons s'agrandissent; 
C'est le regne des vauriens. 
On epuise la finance, 
En batiments, on depense, 
L'^fitat tombe en decadence, 
Le roi ne met ordre a rien. 

" Une petite bourgeoise, 
£ levee a la grivoise, 
Mesurant tout k sa toise, 
Fait de la cour un taudis ; 
Louis, malgre son scrupule, 
Froidement pour elle brule, 
Et son amour ridicule 
A fait rire tout Paris. . . . 

"La contenance eventee, 
Et chaque dent tachetee, 
La peau jaune et truitee, 
Les yeux froids et le cou long, 
Sans esprit, sans caractere, 
L'ame vile et mercenaire, 
Les propos d'une commere. 
Tout est bas chez la Poisson. 

" Si dans les beautes choisies 
Elle etait des plus jolies, 
On pardonne des folies, 
Quand I'objet est un bijou. 



164 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Mais pour sotte creature 
Et pour si plate figure 
Exciter tant de murmure, 
Chacun juge le roi fou." i 



1 The noble lords abase themselves, 
The financiers enrich themselves, 
The Poissons aggrandize themselves ; 
'Tis the reign of good-for-naughts. 
They exhaust the treasury, 
They waste in buildings, 
The State falls into decadence, 
The King sets nothing straight. 

A little bourgeoise, 
Brought up like a wanton, 
Measuring all by her own standard, 
Makes a kennel of the court ; 
Louis, in spite of liis scruples. 
Burns coldly for her, 
And his ridiculous amour 
Makes all Paris laugh. 

A vapid countenance. 
And each tooth spotted. 
The skin yellow and freckled, 
The eyes frigid and the neck long. 
Witless and without character. 
The soul vile and mercenary, 
The tattle of a gossip, 
All is low with la Poisson. 

If among chosen beauties 
She were one of the prettiest. 
One pardons follies 
When their object is a gem. 
But when a ridiculous creature 
And so flat a figure 
Excites so many murmurs. 
Every one thinks the King a fool. 



THE GBIEFS OF THE MARQUISE 165 

Nor did people content themselves with ballads. 
They likewise produced long pieces of emphatic 
verse, distilling venom and hatred. More or less 
skilful imitators of Juvenal composed satires full of 
gall and bitterness. What specially excited the 
indignation of the authors of these diatribes were 
the representations at the theatre of the little cabi- 
nets. One of them, addressing himself to Madame 
de Pompadour, exclaimed : — 

" Parmi ces histrions qui regnent avec toi, 
Qui pourra desormais reconnaitre son roi? " ^ 

Another thus expressed himself : — 

" Sur le trone fran9ais on fait regner ramoui-. 
La fureur du theatre assassine la cour. 
Les palais de nos rois jadis si respectables, 
Perdent tout leur eclat, deviennent meprisables ; 
lis ne sont habites que par des baladins ! . . . " ^ 

A pamphlet entitled " The School of Man, or 
parallel between contemporary portraits and those of 
Holy Writ," contained attacks of this sort against 
Louis XV. : " Too much incommoded by his great- 
ness to take a girl from . the green room, Lindor 

1 Who can hereafter recognize his King 
Amid these actors who reign with thee ? 

2 Love has been set upon the throne of France. 
Theatric rage assassinates the court. 

The palaces of our kings, once worthy of respect, 
Lose all their eclat, become contemptible ; 
None but merry-andrews inhabit them ! . . . 



166 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

satisfied himself in true princely style : lie had a 
large house with a theatre in it built expressly for 
him, where his mistress became a danseuse by title 
and office ; men infatuated by the vanity of dancing 
women, insensate imitators of Candaules, do not 
fancy that the last Gyges died in Lydia." 

One should read the Memoirs of the Marquis 
d'Argenson and those of Barbier the advocate in 
order to get a just notion of the hatred felt for the 
Marquise by both the aristocracy and the middle 
classes. The people despised her quite as much, and 
held her solely responsible for all wretchedness and 
ever}^ disaster. The luxury of this parvenu irritated 
them, and they detested her profoundly. The follow- 
ing quatrain expressed the popular sentiment : — 

" Fille d'une sangsue et sangsue elle-meme, 
Poisson d'une arrogance extreme, 
£tale en ce chateau, sans crainte et sans effroi, 
La substance du peuple et la honte du roi. " ^ 

For those who knew how to listen, the Revolution- 
ary storm was already rumbling in the distance. 

Madame de Pompadour could not rely on her flat- 
terers themselves. Voltaire, who had burned so 
much incense at the adored feet of the Marquise, 
who at Versailles had been her most zealous, ardent. 



1 A leech's daughter and a leech herself, 
Fish of an arrogance extreme, 
Parades in this chateau, without fear or dread, 
The people's substance and the monarch's shame. 



THE GRIEFS OF THE MARQUISE 167 

enthusiastic courtier, forgot all that in his retreat at 
Ferney. He chaffed at his former idol and drew a 
most malicious portrait of her in his poem La Pucelle. 
Thoroughly acquainted with the tone of public 
opinion, since she had her own police and an arrange- 
ment with the director of the post-office, who vio- 
lated the secret of letters for her, Madame de 
Pompadour was in despair at so many attacks. 
Uneasy, feverish, dissatisfied with the King and the 
kingdom, considering herself as a victim of destiny, 
a woman unjustly dealt with by fortune, spitefully 
angrj^ at Frederick the Great, who scoffed at her; 
at Louis XV., who neglected her for the young girls 
of the Deer Park ; at the clergy, who regarded her 
as a tool of hell ; at the Parliaments, which disdained 
her ; at the nobility, who saw nothing in her but an 
ambitious hourgeoise; at the middle classes, who 
reproached her for being immoral; at all France, 
which scorned her, — she suffered as much in her 
vanity as in her pride, and said to her confidant, 
Madame du Hausset : " The sorceress told me 
I should have time to repent before dying ; I believe 
it, for I shall die of nothing but chagrin." 



VII 



MADAME DB POMPADOUR, LADY OF THE QUEEN S 
PALACE 

MADAME DE POMPADOUR was ready 
to play all parts in order to preserve 
her empire. To be an actress and a political 
woman was not enough ; she willingly consented 
to become by turns, and simultaneously if need were, 
a devotee and a procuress, to favorize now the 
Church and now the Deer Park, to submit to every 
transformation, every servitude : Omnia serviliter pro 
domiyiatione. Never did any minister cling more 
firmly to his portfolio, never had any ambitious 
man a greater thirst for power. 

Louis XV. had a substratum of religion which 
made the favorite uneasy. The day he insisted on 
her reading: one of Bourdaloue's sermons she was 
frightened. With all her audacity she never dared 
to criticise the Church in the presence of the Most 
Christian King; for irregular as his own conduct 
was, he would not suffer the faith of his fathers to 
be insulted in his hearing. To keep her place, the 
Marquise would have asked nothing better than to 

168 



LADY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 169 

assume the austere demeanor of a Madame de 
Maintenon ; but she was married, unfortunately, and 
so was the King, and Catholicism has never com- 
promised with concubinage or adultery. Hence 
Madame de Pompadour sought to avert the 
difficulty. She put on a half-way devotion which 
was wholly worldly, made for show, a sort of com- 
promise between God and the devil, between the 
Church and the boudoir, the oratory and the alcove, 
a spurious, derisory, hj^pocritical devotion, examples 
of which are given by many women of our own 
century as well as of the last. 

She had determined to make a figure in the 
Versailles chapel from the time her favor began. 
She meant to shine everywhere, even before the 
altars. It was this that made her request the Queen's 
authorization to carry one of the basins at the cere- 
mony of feet washing on Maundy Thursday, and 
collect the offerings at the High Mass on Easter 
Sunday. But easy as she was where no one but 
herself was concerned, Marie Leczinska became severe 
where God was in question : she refused. 

The Jubilee of 1751 redoubled the anxieties of the 
Marquise. D'Argenson wrote, February 2 : " People 
assert that the King will gain his Jubilee and make 
his Easter Communion. The Marquise says there is 
no longer anything but friendship between the King 
and her, and that they will put a fortnight's retreat 
and truce even to this friendship." The attitude 
of a repentant Magdalen would not have suited a 



170 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

woman like Madame de Pompadour. She was will- 
ing enough for a little devotion, but of an elegant 
and worldly sort, ostentatious and luxurious. The 
theatre, in a word, pleased her much better than the 
church. D' Argenson wrote again, February 6 : " All 
Paris has been talking of the representation of Thetis 
et Felee, eight days ago, at which the Marquise de 
Pompadour was present. The actors addressed her 
directly in the gallant parts, such as, ' Reign, beauti- 
ful Thetis ! ' This she received with a triumphant 
air which a woman of different extraction would not 
have assumed; for some feed their vanity on what 
others could not endure without shame." But what 
afflicted the haughty favorite was the thought that 
all this success might topple over in an instant, like 
a house of cards. At the very time when, always an 
actress, even under the deceptive appearances of her 
so-called repentance, she was having a statue of her- 
self as the goddess of Friendship made for Bellevue, 
she had several attacks of fever — people called it the 
Jubilee fever. 

Madame de Mailly, the woman with whom Louis 
XV. had begun his scandalous life, was at this time 
at her last extremity. One reads in the Memoirs of 
the Marquis d'Argenson, under date of March 27, 
1751: "Madame de Mailly, former mistress of the 
King, is dying. It was thought she was better, but 
the inflammation of the lungs is increasing, and she 
has a hopeless fever. The King has not even once 
sent openly to make inquiries, but the Marquis de 



LADY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 171 

GoDtaud has bulletins four times a day and transmits 
them to the King, who is afraid of offending Madame 
de Pompadour. I am convinced he will be much 
affected by her death. The pious people, those who 
believe in Providence, remark that, the King having 
had the three sisters, they have all died young. 
This one, who was the first, and not incestuous, is 
dying piously and the death of the just : it is even 
through her religious practices that she contracted 
her malady ; apparently she will have a holy death. 
The other two died in horrible anguish, and much 
younger. People reflect also that God is so desirous 
of the King's conversion, that this death happens 
just in the Jubilee time, so as to touch His Majesty, 
already prepared by sermons and disposed to make 
his Jubilee sincerely. However, in the cabinets, di- 
vertisements and ballets are still going on secretly." 

In Barbier's journal are encountered similar re- 
flections on the terrors of the Marquise: "Every- 
body," he writes, "is carefully watching for what 
will happen at the Jubilee. They say Madame de 
Pompadour dreads the results of it. There are many 
at the court, not merely ecclesiastics, but men and 
women who are expecting this event to ruin the 
Marquise, whose abuse of her position has for some 
time gained her the hatred of all the nobles. The 
King can hardly remain at Versailles without making 
his Jubilee. Public prejudice is carried to the point 
of respecting the Jubilee more than the Easter duties 
which are of obligation. If he makes his Jubilee, he 



172 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

cannot well return to the ch§,teau of Bellevue a fort- 
night later, and a month's absence would be danger- 
ous. There are lovers of the court who are now 
forming a plan to find a new mistress for the King 
after the Jubilee ; for, melancholy as it may be, he 
must have some diversion ; and if he should alto- 
gether fear the devil and decide on amendment, this 
would be not at all amusing for the nobles. This 
event, then, which is not far distant, is what is agi- 
tating the public high and low." 

Madame de Mailly breathed her last March 30. 
In her will she had asked to be buried in the ceme- 
tery, among the poor, and to have a wooden cross. 
The Marquis d'Argenson writes : " These austerities, 
penances, and poverty increase the adverse opinion 
against her who now occupies her former place and 
whose conduct is so very different. It is also re- 
marked, for the honor of religion, that Madame de 
Mailly, who was often subject to fits of ill temper, 
which was the cause of her being banished by the 
King, had become as mild and equable as possible. 
People say that if she was not holy, no other woman 
ever will be." 

But Madame de Pompadour was once more victo- 
rious. The King did not allow himself to be touched 
by the death of his former mistress, and, spite of the 
warnings of heaven, he did not make his Jubilee. 
Still the Marquise was not tranquil. D'Argenson 
wrote, December 11, 1752 : " Madame de Pompadour 
has been spitting blood since her youth. Et in fee- 



LADY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 173 

cato concepit earn mater sua. She is becoming as diy 
as a stick, and one can see lier growing thin with 
jealousy." And September 17, 1753 : " The King is 
becoming superstitiously devout, respecting the clergy 
more than morals. Marshal de Richelieu said to me 
in a jesting way : ' The King shows angelic devotion. 
He won't do anything without the episcopate in the 
affairs of Languedoc' " 

Madame de Pompadour no longer appealed to the 
senses of Louis XV. Sensuality failing her, she 
would have liked to be able to press religion into her 
service. She sought to create a new r81e for herself 
as favorite, more minister than mistress ; to legitimate 
by duration as well as by a certain decorum her liai- 
son with the King ; to assume, in brief, an attitude 
as friend, counsellor, I might almost say matron. 

Negotiating her conversion with the Jesuits as if 
it were a diplomatic affair, she demanded as a condi- 
tion sine qud non, that she should remain at Ver- 
sailles. But here was the difficult point. The clergy, 
even at a period of abasement, retained their princi- 
ples, and the Church would not be the dupe of a 
woman. But one thing, the absolution of a priest, 
was needful to enable her to go on playing her part 
as companion to the King, female minister, peace- 
make^r between the King and the royal family, the 
Crown and the Parliaments, the clergy and the phi- 
losophers. All she had to do to merit and obtain 
this absolution was to withdraw from the court. 
But the Marquise would have preferred death to 



174 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 



retreat. The atmosphere of Versailles was indispen- 
sable to her. Far from the scene of her sorry tri- 
umphs she would have expired in rage and despair. 
Louis XV. well knew that to dismiss her would be 
to kill her. Therefore he kept her near him, but 
solely through compassion. 

Madame de Pompadour had put herself in commu- 
nication with a Jesuit, Pere de Sacy, whom she had 
formerly known, and from whom she hoped to gain, 
not only absolution, but permission to remain at the 
palace of Versailles. As, in the preceding reign, 
the " mistress thundering and triumphant," Madame 
de Montespan, had been seen to humble herself 
before a simple cur^, the all-powerful Marquise de 
Pompadour was now seen humbly soliciting a Jesuit. 
Pere de Sacy remained firm : he would not let himself 
be moved by the fine protestations of the Marquise. 
It was in vain to show him that the communications 
between the apartments of the King and the favorite 
were now walled up; useless for the partisans of 
loose morality and worldly religion to say to him 
that he must not discourage repentance ; that too 
much severity would spoil all ; that the Church had 
need of Madame de Pompadour against the Ency- 
clopedists ; in a word, that there ought to be such a 
thing as compromising with heaven. The Jesuit 
rejected this theory of relaxation and culpable con- 
descension. He reminded his pretended penitent 
that she had a husband still living, — a husband of 
whom she could not complain, and that her place 



LADY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 175 

was not at the palace of Versailles, but at the side 
of M. Lenormand d'Etioles. This annoying souvenir 
exasperated the favorite, infuriated by the conjugal 
phantom that rose before her, and thwarted all her 
plans. When she was convinced that, in spite of her 
feminine tricks, she could never bend Pere de Sacy, 
she dismissed him ; ^ and undoubtedly the admirable 
conduct of the Jesuits was one of the causes which 
brought about the expulsion of the order a few years 
later. Madame de Pompadour was vindictive. She 
never pardoned any one who had the audacity to 
displease her. 

Could one believe it? The favorite pushed her 
assurance to the point of posing as a victim. To 
credit her, people were unjustly opposing obstacles 
to her conversion and that of the King. Priests who 
refused absolution in this way were enemies of the 
throne and the altar. At the same time, she shame- 
lessly solicited a place as lady of the Queen's palace. 
Marie Leczinska's obligingness had already been car- 
ried too far. This time the good Queen made some 
observations. To receive to a place of honor a woman 
separated from her husband, a person who could not 
even claim to receive the benefits of the general com- 
munion, was an ignominy to which Louis XV. could 
not really wish to condemn a Queen of France. 
Accomplished intriguer as she was, Madame de Pom- 
padour was not yet discouraged. She declared her 

^ Clement XIV. et les Jesuites, by M. Cretineau-Joly. 



176 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

willingness to be reconciled with her husband, at 
the same time secretly acquainting M. Lenormand 
d'Etioles that he would do well to refrain from 
accepting such an offer. The letter she wrote him 
was replete with the finest sentiments. As much as 
she had scandalized society by her separation, so 
much she promised to edify it hereafter by an irre- 
proachable union with her husband. But this prom- 
ise was only a feint. Moreover, M. d'Etioles was 
hardly anxious to take back his wife. He might 
have applied to her the idea expressed in this line of 
a modern tragedy : — 

Et mon indifference a tue mon me'pris. 
And my indifference has slain my scorn. 

It was long since the woman who had ceased to 
bear his name and whose desertion had once ren- 
dered him so unhappy, had excited in him either 
anger or resentment. He had wept for Madame 
d'Etioles. But Madame d'Etioles had been dead 
more than ten years, and he did not know Madame 
the Marquise de Pompadour. Nor had he any 
desire to know her. What he was told about her 
in nowise tempted him. He greatly preferred a 
former dancer at the opera, Mademoiselle Rem, with 
whom he lived maritally, and for whose sake he 
had refused the embassy from France to Constanti- 
nople. 

Madame de Pompadour triumphed. The really 
guilty person, said she, was her husband. He and 



LADY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 177 

he alone committed the sin, he wlio refused to open 
his arms to a repentant spouse. She could not re- 
enter the conjugal abode by force. Hence the 
Queen could have no complaint against her, and 
no opposition could be made against her obtaining, 
after having received absolution, that place as lady 
of the palace, which was the height of her desires. 
She formally received her Easter communion at the 
church of Saint Louis, Versailles. But it was not 
Pere de Sacy who heard her confession, but another 
priest. 

" I had been surprised," writes Madame du Haus- 
set, " for some time past to see the Duchess de Luynes 
coming secretly to Madame. Afterwards she came 
openly; and one evening, Madame having gone to 
bed, called me and said : ' My dear, you are going 
to be very well contented, the Queen is giving 
me a place as lady of the palace ; to-morrow I am 
to be presented; you must make me look very 
handsome.' I knew that the King was not quite 
so much at his ease about it; he was afraid of 
scandal and that people might think he had forced 
the Queen to make this nomination. But there 
was nothing of that sort. It was represented to 
the Princess that it would be an heroic act on her 
part to forget the past; that all scandal would be 
obliterated when it was seen that an honorable posi- 
tion was what retained Madame at court, and that 
this would be the best proof that nothing but friend- 
ship existed any longer between the King and his 



178 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

favorite. The Queen received her very well. The 
pious sort flattered themselves that they would be 
protected by Madame, and for some time sang her 
praises. . . . This was the time when Madame 
appeared to me the most contented. The devotees 
made no scruples about visiting her and did not 
forget themselves when opportunity offered. . . . 
The doctor (Quesnay) laughed at this change of 
scenes and made merry at the expense of the dev- 
otees. 'And yet,' I said to him, 'they are con- 
sistent and may be in good faith.' ' Yes,' said he, 
' but they ought not to ask for anything.' " 

The Marquise de Pompadour, who had had the 
tabouret and the honors of a duchess since 1752, 
received her brevet as lady of the Queen's palace 
February 7, 1756. She began the next day her 
week of attendance on Marie Leczinska, at the state 
dinner in a superb costume. 

D'Argenson, whose morality is often peculiar, 
finds the thing natural enough. He approves rather 
than criticises. " Sunday evening," he writes, " the 
Marquise de Pompadour was declared at Versailles 
lady of the Queen's palace, whence it is conjectured 
that she is no longer the King's mistress. It is 
even said that she begins to talk devotion and Molin- 
ism, and is going to try and please the Queen as 
much as she has the King. All this confidence 
which has been evident during the three years since 
the King began to have new mistresses is merely the 
reward of the sweetness and humility with which 



LABY OF THE QUEEN'S PALACE 179 

she has accepted her lover's infidelities. This is 
only precarious and mere pretence, or, rather, it comes 
from a sentiment of friendship, good taste, and grati- 
tude, and a good-nature in which love counts for 
nothing. But these reasonable sentiments can ac- 
complish much in a sensible and well-ordered heart 
like that of the King." Here one gets the sum 
of the morality of the eighteenth century. What 
could be expected of a society in which even worthy 
men could use such language and show such com- 
plaisance ? 



VIII 

MADAME DE POMPADOIJR AND THE ATTEMPT OP 
DAMIENS 

MADAME DE POMPADOUE was destined 
to "live in the midst of alarms." For nearly 
a year she had been congratulating herself on the 
cleverness with which she had carried by assault the 
post of lady of the Queen's palace, and had dismissed 
the confessors, of whom she thought she had no 
more need, when an unforeseen event was Yerj near 
making her lose all the ground she had so painfully 
acquired. 

Tov/ard six o'clock in the evening of January 5, 
1757, Louis XV. had just come down the little stair- 
case leading from his apartments to a vestibule fac- 
ing the marble court, and was about to enter a 
carriage, when he was struck by a penknife in the 
hand of a person named Damiens, who, either through 
folly or fanaticism, wished not to kill him, but to 
give him a warning. The King thought himself 
mortally wounded. He belonged to that category 
of Christians who are never pious but when they are 
sick. When in good health they say: "There is 

180 



THE ATTEMPT OF D AMIENS 181 

always time to repent." But if danger threatens 
them, they tremble, they go to confession, they be- 
come saints for the time being, reserving the privi- 
lege of resuming their vicious habits as soon as their 
health returns. When he thought death was facing 
him, Louis XV. expressed himself in terms worthy 
of the Most Christian King. At Metz he had been 
sublime. He was not less eloquent at Versailles. 
The noblest maxims were on his lips, the most beau- 
tiful sentiments in his heart. He named his son 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and said to him 
with emotion : " I leave you a very disturbed realm ; 
I hope that you may govern it better than I have 
done." He melted into tears of edification and ad- 
miration all those who came near him. This was no 
longer the man of the Deer Park ; it was the son of 
Saint Louis. 

One of his first words after being struck was a cry 
for a priest. His Jesuit confessor, Pdre Desmarets, 
was not just then at Versailles. A priest of the 
Grand-Commun was summoned (the ecclesiastics 
who acted as chaplains to those persons in the King's 
service who were lodged in the apartments called 
Grand-Commun). Louis XV. made his confession 
first to this priest, and again to Pere Desmarets, who 
arrived in great haste from Paris. 

Louis XV. had received only a trifling wound. 
Damiens, who might have killed him, had not wished 
to do so. He had two blades on one handle, a large 
one and a small one, and had used only the latter. 



182 TEE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

The doctor said that if the wounded man were not a 
king, he might go about his affairs the next day. 
But the imagination of Louis XV. was easily excited. 
When the wound had been probed, and he was 
assured that it was not very deep, he exclaimed: 
"It is deeper than you think, for it goes clear to the 
heart." Baron de Besenval relates in his Memoirs 
that when the doctors had no longer the least anx- 
iety, that of the King was such that, believing him- 
self dying, he made the Abbe de Rochecour, the 
chaplain of the neighborhood, give him absolution 
every moment. 

Louis the Well-Beloved was not as yet Louis 
the Well-Hated. Barbier says there was general 
consternation at Paris ; everybody lamented. The 
archbishop commanded the devotions of the forty 
hours in all the churches. The priests and monks, 
suffocated by emotion, could hardly intone the 
Domine salvum fac regem. 

What was happening to Madame de Pompadour 
all this time ? She remained in her apartment in the 
palace of Versailles, but she had not even dared 
solicit the favor of seeing the royal sufferer. She 
knew that Louis XV. was no longer the same man 
when he was ill, and that it took him only a moment 
to become once more a devotee. Remembering what 
had happened at Metz at the time of the ignominious 
banishment of the Duchess de Chateauroux, she was 
convinced that she was about to go into exile, and 
nearly everybody believed the same. 



THE ATTEMPT OF DAMIENS 183 

"The people," says Madame du Hausset, "received 
the news of the assault on the King with furious 
cries and the utmost despair ; one could hear them 
crying under the windows from Madame's apartment. 
They came in crowds, and Madame dreaded the fate 
of Madame de Chateauroux. Her friends came con- 
stantly with tidings. For that matter, her apartment 
was like a church, which everybody thought he had 
a right to enter. They came to see how she took it, 
under pretence of interest, and Madame did nothing 
but weep and faint away. Doctor Quesnay never left 
her, nor I either." 

What was at this moment the attitude of the three 
principal ministers. Count d'Argenson (brother of 
the author of the Memoirs), Minister of War, M. de 
Machault, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, 
and Abbd de Bernis, who had been appointed Minis- 
ter of Foreign Affairs three days before the assault ? 
The first was the sworn enemy of the Marquise. He 
caught at the chance for vengeance. The second 
was under obligations to the Marquise, but, believ- 
ing she would henceforth be powerless, he declared 
against her in order to salute the Dauphin's rising 
sun. The third did not abandon the woman to 
whom he owed the portfolio he had just obtained. 
He wrote to M. de Choiseul this singular letter, in 
which the words " honor " and "virtue " are employed 
strangely enough : " The King has been assassinated, 
and all that the court has seen in this frightful event 
is a favorable moment for driving away our friend. 



184 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

Every intrigue has been brought to play on the con- 
fessor. There is a tribe at court who are always 
awaiting the Extreme Unction in order to try to 
augment their importance. Why should devotion 
be separated so from virtue? Our friend can no 
longer scandalize any one but fools and knaves. It 
is of public notoriety that friendship has supplanted 
gallantry these , five years back. It is pure bigotry 
to go back into the past to impugn the innocence 
of the actual connection. This is founded upon his 
need of being able to open his heart to a proved and 
trusty friend who is, in the divisions of the Ministry, 
the sole point of reunion. What ingrates I have 
seen, my dear Count, and how corrupt our time is ! 
Perhaps there have never been more virtues in the 
world, but there has been more honor." 

Count d'Argenson and M. de Machault did not 
like each other, but they were in agreement respect- 
ing the Marquise. If Madame de Pompadour was in 
nowise astonished by the conduct of the first, whose 
detestation of her she had long been aware of, the 
defection of the second, who had been her creature, 
put her beside herself, "Is that a friend?" she 
exclaimed in amazement. 

On being left alone with M. de Machault, after 
the dressing of his wound, Louis XV. charged him, 
as a friend of his favorite, not to send her an order to 
depart, but to personally advise her to do so. The 
Keeper of the Seals called therefore on the Marquise. 
The interview lasted half an hour. The result was 



THE ATTEMPT OF D AMIENS 185 

anxiously awaited, and the Abb^ de Bernis had re- 
turned to learn what passed. But Madame du Haus- 
set shall tell the story. Nobody is so interesting as 
ear and eye witnesses. 

" Madame rang ; I entered, followed by the Abb^. 
She was in tears. ' I have got to go away, my dear 
Abb^,' said she. I made her take some orange flower 
water in a silver goblet, because her teeth were chat- 
tering. Afterwards she told me to call her equerry, 
and she gave him her orders tranquilly enough to 
have her house at Paris prepared for her, and to tell 
all her people to be ready to start, and her coachmen 
not to absent themselves. A few minutes later the 
Marechale Mirepoix came in: 'What are all these 
trunks for ? ' she exclaimed. ' Your people say you 
are going away?' 'Alas! my dear friend, the mas- 
ter wills it, according to what M. de Machault has 
told me.' — 'And what is his own opinion?' said 
the Marechale. ' That I should go without delay.' 
During this time I was undressing Madame unaided, 
she wishing to be more at ease on her sofa. ' He 
wants to be master, your keeper of the seals,' said the 
Marechale, ' and he is betraying you ; who gives up 
the game loses it.' " This language made the clever 
Marquise thoughtful. Quesnay came in afterwards, 
"and with his monkey-like air, having heard what 
had been said, he recited the fable of a fox who, 
dining with some other animals, persuaded one of 
them that his enemies were hunting for him, so as to 
snatch his part in his absence. I did not see Madame 



186 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

again iiutil very late, at the hour of her couchee. 
She was calmer." 

However, it was not yet known whether the favor- 
ite would not end by being disgraced. Her enemy, 
Count d'Argenson, seemed to possess the intimate 
confidence of the sovereign. Tlie King had given 
him his keys that he might look for the secret papers 
at Trianon, and the Count's brother, the Marquis 
d'Argenson, wrote in his Memoirs, January 15, 1757, 
ten days after the assault : " It is true that since the 
assassination of the King, the Marquise has not seen 
His Majesty for a single instant. She endures her' 
disgrace by concealing it ; but little by little she will 
be abandoned. She has neither seen nor received a 
billet from His Majest3^ who no longer seems to think 
of her. Meanwhile the King sees his confessor, Pdre 
Desmarets, every day, and has made declarations of 
friendship and good conduct to the Queen. All this 
smacks of a change at court. M. the Dauphin has 
entered the Council and is gaining credit there.' 
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs was deluding 
himself. On the very day whe]i he wrote these lines, 
the Marquise saw Louis XV. again and resumed her 
former domination, as the Minister of War was pres- 
ently to become aware. " The great talent at court," 
saj's the Baron de Besenval, " is to be a good judge 
of circumstances and know how to profit by them. 
M. d'Argenson deceived himself in this ; he should 
have reflected that the ill-grounded terror of the 
King might pass as quickly as it came, and that he 



THE ATTEMPT OF D AMIENS 187 

would seek to resume power as promptly as he had 
abandoned it. This is the way with all feeble souls. 
The minister forgot this truth. In the first council 
held after the attempt on the King, M. d'Argenson 
proposed, in presence of M. the Dauphin, who 
presided, that the ministers should hold their delib- 
erations in the apartments of this prince, as lieuten- 
ant-general of the kingdom, until the complete 
recovery of the King. It resulted from this fault 
that M. the Dauphin, who was not very susceptible 
of ambition, was not at all grateful to the minister 
for his proposal, and that the King, hardly conva- 
lescent as yet, found his heart again replenished 
with that displeasure which his son had always 
inspired in him ; that he withdrew him from affairs 
and never forgave M. d'Argenson for the mark of 
devotion he had given him on this occasion. When 
one dares to be ungrateful, he ought at least to be 
more adroit about it." 

As Baron de Besenval again remarks, " a mistress 
removed is not yet to be despised, and love has its 
caprices and returns as prompt as those of fortune." 
Madame de Pompadour stayed where she was. The 
Minister of War and the Keeper of the Seals were 
sacrificed to her. The favorite made a tearful scene 
in presence of Louis XV. One would have thought 
she was going to faint. Madame du Hausset went 
to fetch her some of Hoffman's drops. The King 
himself arranged the dose with sugar and presented 
it to the Marquise in the most gracious manner. 



188 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

She ended by smiling and kissed the hand of the 
gaUant monarch, who consoled her. 

Two days later, Count d'Argenson received the 
following letter from the King : " Your service is no 
longer necessary to me. I order you to send me 
your resignation as Secretary of State for War and 
all which concerns the employments thereunto ad- 
joined, and to retire to your estate of Ormes." 

Things resumed their customary course. At the 
end of January, 1757, the advocate Barbier wrote in 
his journal : " The King is perfectly well. Madame 
the Marquise de Pompadour has not quitted Ver- 
sailles. A few days after his recovery the King paid 
her a visit of a quarter of an hour, but since he holds 
his councils as usual he has resumed his own occupa- 
tions ; he has hunted several times, and the little 
suppers have begun again." The chronicler, often 
cynical, concludes as follows : " Notwithstanding the 
criticisms of evil-minded persons, the best thing that 
could happen to both him and us, that is to all good 
citizens, would be for him to banish from his mind 
a misfortune which ought not to affect one, and con- 
tinue his ordinary dissipations." 

Baron de Besenval's conclusion must also be 
quoted : " Thus in the whole of this affair, M. 
d'Argenson had been willing to sacrifice the King 
to the Dauphin in order to prolong his own power. 
The King had been willing to sacrifice his mistress 
to public opinion and the terrors which disturbed 
his mind. M. de Machault consented to sacrifice 



THE ATTEMPT OF D AMIENS 189 

Madame de Pompadour, his friend, by giving her 
advice which might please the monarch. And in the 
end everything was sacrificed to love, which is what 
happens and will happen always." Here the word 
"love "is not accurate; "habit" is what he should 
have said. 

Once more the favorite had triumphed ; but in her 
victory she bore a mortal grudge against the Jesuits 
who had nearly succeeded in banishing her. She 
began that underhand but violent struggle against 
them which, a few years later, was to result in the 
suppression of their order. She had the audacity to 
forward secretly to the Pope a note which was a 
censure on their conduct and, if one can believe it, 
a defence of her own. This note, a copy of which 
has been discovered in the papers of the Duke de 
Choiseul, is a veritable monument of cynicism or 
else of a perverted conscience. It proves in the 
woman who conceived it an entire lack of moral sense, 
a forgetfulness of the most elementary decorum, 
and of the respect which unbelievers themselves owe 
to religion. 

This curious document opens as follows : — 
" At the beginning of 1752, determined by motives 
which it is useless to give an account of, to no 
longer preserve for the King any sentiments but 
those of gratitude and the purest attachment, I 
declared as much to His Majesty, supplicating him 
to cause the doctors of the Sorbonne to be con- 
sulted, and to write to his confessor that he might 



190 THE COURT OF LOUIti XV. 

consult with others, m order that I might be left 
near his person, since he desired it, without being 
exposed to the suspicion of a weakness which I no 
longer had." 

So then, to credit Madame de Pompadour, she had 
become a type of modesty and Christian renuncia- 
tion. She adds : " Things remained in appearance 
just as they had been until 1755. Then, prolonged 
reflections on the evils which had pursued me, even 
amidst the greatest good fortune ; the certainty of 
never arriving at happiness by worldly goods, since 
none had ever been lacking to me, and yet I had 
never attained to happiness ; detachment from the 
things which had most amused me, — all induced me 
to believe that the only happiness is in God. I ad- 
dressed myself to P^re de Sacy as to a man fully 
penetrated with this verity; I bared my soul com- 
pletely to him ; he tried me in secret from Septem- 
ber to the end of January, 1756. During this 
time he proposed that I should write a letter to 
my husband, the rough draft of which, drawn up 
by himself, I still have. My husband refused ever 
to see me." 

The Marquise then complained to the Sovereign 
Pontiff of Pere de Sacy, who, according to her, was 
the victim of intrigues of every sort, and guilty of 
having told her that he would refuse her the sacra- 
ments so long as she did not leave the court. She 
added, in speaking of Damiens's crime : " The abom- 
inable 5th January, 1757, arrived, and was followed 



THE ATTEMPT OF D AMIENS 191 

by the same intrigues as in the previous year. The 
King did all in his power to bring Pere Desmarets 
to the verity of religion. The same motives being at 
work, the response was not different ; and the King, 
who earnestly desired to fulfil his duties as a Chris- 
tian, was prevented from doing so, and soon after 
relapsed into the same errors, from which he would 
certainlj^ have been extricated had they acted in 
good faith." 

Perhaps all is not hypocrisy in this note. I incline 
to believe that in spite of her idolatry for the court, 
the favorite recognized its miseries and nothingness. 
How many persons remain vicious while knowing 
well that vice produces their unhappiness ! How 
many passionate people own to themselves that their 
passions are killing them ! O Ambition ! cries Saint 
Bernard, by what spell does it happen that, being the 
torment of a heart where thou hast taken birth, and 
where thou dost exert thine empire, yet there is no 
person whom thou dost not please, and who does not 
allow himself to be taken by surprise by the flatter- 
ing attraction thou dost offer him. ambitio, quo 
modo'omnes torquens omnihus places? 

It would have been easy to reply to the Marquise 
de Pompadour that if the grandeurs of this world 
gave her so little satisfaction, all she had to do was 
to withdraw from the court. Hence the Pope re- 
mained untouched by all this display of Christian 
philosophy. He could not make up his mind to 
consider the mistress of Louis XV. as a repentant 



192 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

Magdalen; and, far from blaming the Jesuits who 
had refused her absolution, he approved them. The 
haughty favorite did not admit that she was beaten. 
She kept silence, swearing, however, that she would 
be avenged. 



IX 



MADAME DE POMPADOUR AND DOMESTIC POLITICS 

AT home as well as abroad, in parliamentary and 
clerical quarrels, as in questions of external 
politics, Madame de Pompadour's ideas were always 
undecided, inconsistent, variable. For that matter, 
it is not easy to find in a pretty woman the qualities 
needful to manage public affairs well. With very 
few exceptions, fashionable women are fickle, wilful, 
excessively impressionable, capricious, like nearly all 
persons who are flattered. If they meddle with gov- 
ernment, their half-knowledge is more dangerous than 
complete ignorance. They have infatuations, fore- 
gone determinations ; their mania for protecting 
makes them obstinate in sustaining undeserving 
favorites. Their most serious determinations often 
depend on trifles. A well-turned compliment in- 
fluences them more than a good reason ; they are 
the dupes of any one who knows how to flatter them 
without seeming to do so, and who can find more 
or less ingenious pretexts for justifying their whims 
or palliating their faults. Such was Madame de 
Pompadour. 

193 



194 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Is it not curious to see tins futile woman leaving 
her gimcracks and gewgaws to interfere in the most 
arduous theological or governmental questions, to 
pose as an arbiter between the magistracy and the 
clergy, the throne and the altar? " Certes," writes 
D'Argenson in a style well worthy of the epoch, " it 
is better to see a beautiful nymph at the helm than 
a villainous crouching ape such as the late Cardinal 
Fleury. But these fair ladies are as capricious 
as white cats, which caress you at first and after- 
wards scratch and bite you." Madame de Pompa- 
dour acted like that with the Parliament ; sometimes 
she caressed, sometimes she clawed it. 

The interminable struggle between secular juris- 
diction and ecclesiastical discipline had all the 
ruthlessness, all the asperity, of a civil war. A 
society at once incredulous and fanatical grew ex- 
cited over theological questions worthy of Byzan- 
tium, and even in the heart of the Seven Years' War 
there were at Paris, as Voltaire remarks, fifty thou- 
sand fanatics who did not know in what country 
flowed the Danube and the Elbe, and who thought 
the universe turned upside down by the contra- 
dictory propositions of the adepts of Jansenism and 
the disciples of Molina.^ 

The question, however, Avas more serious than one 
mierht be inclined to believe. Jansenism, that third 



1 See the very learned and complete work of M. Jobez : La 
France sous Loins XV. Six vols., Didier. 



DOMESTIC POLITICS 195 

estate of religion, as it has been so justly called, was 
nothing more or less than a preliminary ste}) toward 
republican doctrines. " Do not believe," said Bos- 
suet, apropos of the English revolution, " that it is 
simply the quarrel of the Episcopate, or some in- 
trigues against the Anglican liturgy which have 
moved the common people. These disputes were as 
yet only feeble commencements wliereby turbulent 
spirits made a trial of their liberty ; but something 
more violent was stirring in the depths of men's 
hearts ; it was a secret disgust for all that had been 
authority, and an itching to innovate incessantly 
after the first example had been seen." 

French Jansenism had the haughty chagrin, the 
indocile curiosity, the spirit of revolt, Avhich charac- 
terized the Protestantism of England. Louis XIV., 
so jealous of his royal prerogatives, had seen this at 
once. He felt that discipline is as indispensable to 
the Church as to the barracks, and comprehended 
that the throne has the same foundations as the 
altar. The thing aimed at by the bull Unigenitus of 
1713 was to re-establish unity in doctrines ; and when 
the Jansenists refused to submit to the decree of the 
Sovereign Pontiff, the great King said that this 
rebellion against the Pope would give rise to attacks 
against the monarchical principle. He was not mis- 
taken. If the Parliament showed itself favorable to 
Jansenism, it was far less on account of such or such 
ideas on free will or grace, than by instinctive liking 
for the revolutionary spirit which existed in germ in 



196 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the new sect. Religious controversies were to lead 
by slow degrees to political controversies. The Par- 
liament led to parliamentarism. People began by- 
contemning the episcopal jurisdiction of an arch- 
bishop in order to end by braving the authority of a 
king. 

Christopher de Beaumont, that convinced priest, 
that austere and inflexible prelate, so firm against 
the temptation of grandeurs that Louis XV. had 
been obliged to summon him thrice in order to make 
him leave his diocese of Vienne, in Dauphiny, and 
accept the archbishopric of Paris, Christopher de 
Beaumont was faithful to the traditions of the 
Church when he denied all competence over matters 
purely religious, such as the administration of sacra- 
ments, to the Parliament. His doctrine was after all 
only that of the separation of the powers. Louis 
XV. inclined to the views of the Archbishop, whose 
virtues he appreciated. Like Louis XIV., he recog- 
nized the bull Unigenitus, and treated Jansenism as 
a heresy. Like Louis XIV., he suspected, not with- 
out reason, both the Parliament and the Parisian 
population. "I know the people of Paris," said he; 
"they must have remonstrances and shows, and 
perhaps worse than that some day." Madame de 
Pompadour would have taken the part of the Arch- 
bishop, as the King wished to do, if the Archbishop 
had been a courtier ; but Christopher de Beaumont 
would rather have died than compromise with con- 
cubinage and adultery. He could not understand a 



DOMESTIC POLITICS 197 

prelate's stooping before a royal favorite, and the 
idea of soliciting a Pompadour would have made 
him blush. He preferred to be twice exiled. " The 
Queen," wrote D'Argenson in December, 1754, 
" Monseigneur the Dauphin, and all the royal family 
are greatly troubled by the exile of the Archbishop 
of Paris ; the Queen weeps over it every day." 
Christopher de Beaumont received numerous visits 
in his exile at Conflans. The orthodox considered 
him the upholder of the faith. The King admired 
the Archbishop, but did not sustain him. D'Argen- 
sen wrote, March 6, 1756 : — 

" The motto Dividatur might be recommended for 
the personal government of Louis XV. He received 
this spirit of compromise from Cardinal Fleury. All 
his forces run to that. . . . Hence, doing good only 
half way, he also does evil half way, which produces a 
chaotic state of things, and the worst effect." With 
this system the monarch dissatisfied the magistracy 
and the clergy at the same time. By turns he ban- 
ished the Parliament and the Archbishop. The cures 
continued to refuse the sacraments to the Jansenists. 
The magistrates sent their bailiffs' men and caused 
the sick to be communicated surrounded by bayonets. 
The Eucharist was abandoned to derision by the par- 
ties to the strife. The court fluctuated between the 
two opinions. After having sent the Archbishop of 
Paris to Conflans, Louis XV., although leaving him 
in disgrace, pronounced in his favor. 

In a bed of justice held December 13, 1756, the 



198 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

King forbade the Parliament to decree the administra- 
tion of the sacraments, to convene general assem- 
blies, to interfere with the course of justice, to 
suspend the registration of edicts. He suppressed 
the chambers of inquests, and declared that he would 
punish any who would not obey. One hundred and 
fifty members of the Parliament sent in their resigna- 
tions. All Paris was in commotion. A riot was 
momentarily expected. Nothing was heard but 
oaths and curses. The Parliament and Jansenistic 
diatribes had the result of exciting Damiens to the 
insanity of fanaticism. He thought that in striking 
Louis XV. he was acting for God and the people. 
Madame de Pompadour, still more versatile than the 
King, was at this time the enemy of the Parliament. 
However, the exile of the Archbishop continued, be- 
cause nothing could induce him to curry-favor with 
the favorite. The charge which he sent from Con- 
flans to Paris displeased the Marquise. 

" Let us enter into our own selves, my dear breth- 
ren," said he, "and see whether the aberrations of our 
own minds and hearts have not drawn upon us so 
terrible an effect of the divine wrath. Examine 
without prejudice what has been deserved by so 
many errors diffused among the public, so much 
license in speech, such blasphemies against God and 
His Christ, such disputing against the known truth, 
such scandals in every condition and of all kinds ; 
observe, in particular, whether, since the weakening 
of faith among us, a multitude of principles tending 



DOMESTIC POLITICS 199 

to disobedience and even to rebellion against the sov- 
ereign and his laws have not insinuated themselves 
into men's minds and books. It would be easy for 
us to remind you of the maxims of the holy doctors 
which have never ceased to inspire those sentiments 
of fidelity that are due to earthly princes; the de- 
cisions of councils which have anathematized every 
doctrine capable of revolting peoples against the sov- 
ereign ; the perpetual instructions of pastors, who 
have always said with the great Apostle : Obey your 
temporal masters in all things. . . . What are we to 
think of the execrable crime which has been con- 
ceived in the bosom of the country and executed 
under our eyes ? What must be our indignation at 
the memory of a treasonable attempt, deliberately 
planned, and made in that palace where everything 
announces the majesty of the sovereign ? " 

This truly evangelical language was the admiration 
of the Queen, the Dauphin, and all pious people. 
But it seemed like a satire to the protectress of the 
philosophers, the friend of Voltaire and Quesnay, the 
patroness of the Encyclopedia. Louis XV. was in 
reality of the Archbishop's opinion. He recalled 
him in October, 1757. But, faithful to his system of 
compromises, he permitted those members of the Par- 
liament who had resigned to resume their functions. 
The Archbishop, constantly pursued by the animad- 
versions of the favorite, was exiled a second time, 
from January, 1758, to October, 1759. The inflexible 
prelate conceded nothing in point of doctrine. 



200 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

" Let them erect a scaffold in the midst of the court," 
he exclaimed; "I would ascend it to maintain my 
rights, fulfil my duties, and obey the laws of my 
conscience." 

The quarrels over the bull Unigenitus were at last 
appeased; but religious authority was weakened at 
the same time as royal authority. Emboldened by 
their polemics, the members of the Parliament began 
gradually to pose as protectors of liberties and cen- 
sors of absolute monarchy. Some of the nobles, on 
the lookout for popularity, such as D'Argenson, 
Choiseul, and other disciples of Voltaire, fancied that 
the aristocracy could retain their privileges if the 
clergy lost theirs. Louis XV., who foresaw the 
coming cataclysms, was under no such illusion : at 
bottom he was inimical to the Parliament and friendly 
to the Church. If the Most Christian King some- 
times showed himself indulgent toward the philoso- 
phers, it was because they flattered his mistress and 
sought to stupefy him while lulling his remorse. 



\n. 



MADAME DB POMPADOUR AND THE SEVEN YEAKS' 

WAR 

ONE of the principal calamities laid to the charge 
of Madame de Pompadour, by her contempo- 
raries and by posterity, is the Seven Years' War. 
They have resolved to hold her responsible for all 
the bloodshed, all the disasters and humiliations, for 
Rossbach and Crevelt, for the loss of the colonies and 
the profound injury done to the military prestige 
and naval forces of France. There is some exagger- 
ation in this, as we believe. It must not be forgotten 
that the origin of the Seven Years' War was an 
unjustifiable aggression of the English, who were 
absolutely bent on complete mastery of the seas. 
Madame de Pompadour was certainly not responsible 
for British ambition. It is true that France was not 
ready for strife, and that its marine had been allowed 
to fall into decay. But if the favorite was deceived 
about the resources of the country, if she cherished 
illusions which ruined peoples as well as individuals, 
she was not the only one. 

The Marquis d'Argenson accuses her of having 
201 



202 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

been occupied with porcelains at a time when people 
should have been thinking of arms. " Madame de 
Pompadour," he writes in 1754, "does nothing but 
preach up the great advantage it has been to the 
State to manufacture porcelain like that of Saxony, 
and even to have surpassed it. A royal warehouse 
for this porcelain is being established in the rue de 
la Monnaie. There may be seen a service which the 
King is about to send to the King of Saxony, as if to 
brave and provoke him, saying that he has surpassed 
even his manufactory. At the King's suppers the 
Marquise says that it is uncitizenlil^e not to buy as 
much of this porcelain as one can pay for. Some 
one answered her: But while the King has been 
so liberal in encouraging this manufactory, those of 
Charleville and Saint-Etienne are abandoned, which 
are quite differently useful to us, since they concern 
the defence of the kingdom, and three-quarters of 
the workmen are passing into foreign countries." 
The reflection is, doubtless, just ; but a few Saxony 
or Sevres porcelains, more or less, would not greatly 
have altered the situation of France. It was her 
misfortune to be slumbering in a fatal ease. Voltaire 
has said : " All Europe never saw happier days than 
followed the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, until 
toward the year 1755. Commerce flourished from St. 
Petersburg to Cadiz ; the fine arts were everywhere 
in honor. A mutual confidence existed between all 
nations. Europe resembled a large family, reunited 
after its dissensions." The French allowed them- 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 203 

selves to be deceived by this universal lull. Military 
men and diplomatists felt an exaggerated confidence. 
In a few years people became so accustomed to peace 
that they no longer even thought of war. It was 
the same thing that happened about a century later, 
at the time of the Universal Exposition of 1867. 
Peoples who wish to preserve their greatness ought 
to beware of cosmopolitan theories. While the phi- 
losophers were weaving their humanitarian dreams, 
England was preparing her fleets and Frederick the 
Great his armies. 

A trifling contest between France and England for 
some wild lands in Canada was the kindling spark 
of a fire that was to inflame the four quarters of the 
earth. But this quarrel, insignificant in itself, was 
not the true cause of the war: it was at most its 
pretext. 

To avoid a struggle with England was well-nigh 
impossible ; but what France might have done, and 
did not, was to remain faithful to the alliance with 
Prussia, instead of plunging into one absolutely 
contrary to every tradition of its foreign policy, 
the Austrian alliance. What the diplomacy of 
Louis XV. lacked was consecutiveness. The versa- 
tile monarch did not know what he wanted. Some- 
times Prussian, sometimes Austrian, he fluctuated 
between two contradictory systems. The see-saw 
policy creates only a momentary illusion. It suc- 
ceeds for a while, but it nearly always leads to ruin. 
The secret of strong diplomatists is to persevere in 



204 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

one idea, pursue one end, choose one good alliance, 
and stick to it. Feeble diplomatists, on the contrary, 
undo to-day what they did yesterday. It is like the 
web of Penelope. Whoever studies seriously the 
causes of our reverses, under Napoleonic France as 
well as under the France of the Bourbons, will easily 
convince himself that nearly all of them are due to 
incoherent principles and inconsistent ideas. To 
preserve a system and follow a tradition gives a real 
strength. The strength of Prince Bismarck is to 
have persevered in one idea, that of German unity, 
and in one alliance, that of Russia. 

The policy of the Versailles treaty of 1756, which 
established an intimate accord between Louis XV. 
and Maria Theresa, was not in itself a more objec- 
tionable policy than another. But if it was desired 
to adopt it, it ought not to have been necessary to 
make war with Austria beforehand. Nothing is 
more dangerous than to place one's self in a self- 
contradictory attitude. No confidence is inspired 
by such variable conduct; one is at the mercy of 
every incident. 

In politics, as in religion and literature, the prime 
essential is unity. It is the same thing in diplomacy 
as in style. 

" Ce que Ton con^oit bien s'enonce clairement, 
Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisement." ^ 



1 What is clearly conceived is clearly expressed, 
And the words to say it come easily. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAE 205 

What is required is a true spirit of method, a clear, 
precise, definite object, straight lines, an absence of 
tortuous proceedings. 

The old maxim, " divide to reign," the presence in 
the same ministry of men warring against each other, 
of secret agents who undo the work of official agents, 
underhand ways, countermines, politics by double 
entry, — all this is no sign of strength ; it is the expe- 
dient of weakness. Occult diplomacy, like that of 
Louis XV., is suitable to none but governments in 
extremity. Woe to a sovereign who suspects his 
own ambassadors ! If he has not full confidence in 
them, let him change them ! 

What lay at the root of the character of Louis XV. 
was the habit of dissimulation, the vanity of being 
considered impenetrable. It was he, not Madaiiie de 
Pompadour, who had created a government at con- 
stant war with the principal agents it made use of. 
Nor was the Austrian alliance a conception of the 
favorite's. Louis XV. did not like Frederick the 
Great, and he was not less taken with the flatteries 
of the Empress Maria Theresa than Madame de Pom- 
padour herself. If the adroit sovereign wrote the 
Marquise a letter in which she treated her as a dear 
friend, she was careful at the same time to display a 
passionate admiration, a sort of cult, for Louis XV. 
Moreover, there was an Austrian party at Versailles. 
The Marquis d'Argenson wrote in January, 1756 : 
" There is a large party in our court for the court of 
Vienna. Austria has always had emissaries at our 



206 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

court. 1 hear these emissaries saying that the house 
of Austria is no longer what it was, that it has need 
of us, that we ought to march in close accord, with it. 
I know these insinuations, and it was to opposing 
them that I owe my disgrace in 1747. They preach 
to us against the King of Prussia, they say he is all 
English, and they excite us against him in view of 
despoiling him, if we are able. Hence we sulk at 
Spain, we are irritated against Prussia, our veritable 
and sincere ally, and all this exasperates at court 
femineo ululatu.^^ 

The partisans of the treaty of Versailles (May 1, 
1756), by which France and Austria promised each 
other mutual aid against their enemies, have a right 
to extenuating circumstances. This passage from 
Duclos must not be forgotten : " As soon as the 
treaty was known, there was a sort of inebriation 
which was increased by the chagrin displayed by 
the English ; every one imagined that the union of 
the two first powers would make all Europe respect- 
ful. Ideas have greatly changed since then." 

The Abb^ de Bernis, who had quitted the Vene- 
tian embassy to take the portfolio of foreign affairs, 
and who was one of Madame de Pompadour's favor- 
ites, was charged with drawing up the treaty. " Not- 
withstanding his first objections as a man of sense, 
he did not long resist the general movement which 
carried away all who surrounded him ; he was daz- 
zled, and thought he was contributing to the greatest 
poiijical operation that had been attempted since 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 207 

Richelieu. At first everything seemed to succeed 
as well as could be desired, and the new alliance so 
highly vaunted at court seemed to be taken even 
better still by the public." ^ The Marquise tri- 
umphed. She amused herself by engraving on an 
agate in onyx an allegory, which represented France 
and Austria joining hands above the altar of Fidelity, 
and trampling under foot the mask of Hypocrisy and 
the torch of Discord. 

At the start, people were full of enthusiasm and 
confidence. The victor of Mahon was esteemed as 
successful in war as in love. Nothing was dreamed 
of but mighty feats and conquests. But presently 
all took on a gloomy look. The convention of 
Closter-Seven, so imprudently signed by Marshal 
de Richelieu on September 8, 1757, was the signal 
for unnumbered catastrophes. " One does not die 
of grief," wrote Bernis to Choiseul, December 13 
of the same year, "for I am still alive after Sep- 
tember 8. Since that epoch, faults have been accu- 
mulated in a fashion one can hardly explain, without 
supposing bad intentions. I have spoken with the 
greatest force to God and His saints. I excite pulses 
a little, and then the lethargy recommences ; people 
open big eyes, and that is all there is about it. . . . It 
seems to me as if I were minister of foreign affairs in 
Limbo. Try, my dear count, if you can excite more 
than I the spirit of life which is becoming extinct in 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lunde, t. vili. 



208 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

US ; for my part, I have dealt all my great blows, and 
have concluded to be in an apoplexy like the others 
over sentiment, without ceasing to do my duty like 
a good citizen and an honest man." The former 
abbe of the court become a minister, the once super- 
ficial man whom Voltaire used to call " Babet, the- 
bouquet-holder," was indignant at the general apathy 
and carelessness. "It is unexampled," wrote this 
friend of Madame de Pompadour, "that so great 
a game should be played with the same indifference 
as a game of checkers. . . . Sensitive, and, if I dare 
say it, sensible as I am, I am dying on the wheel, 
and my martyrdom is useless to France. . . . May 
God send us some will or other, or some one who 
will have one for us ! I would be his valet de 
chambre if they liked, and with all my heart." 

As soon as the struggle began, unfortunate France 
was amazed at the illusions she had cherished. The 
truth appeared to her. Bernis comprehended that 
the shortest follies are the best. January 6, 1758, 
he wrote to Choiseul, then Ambassador to Vienna : 
" My advice would be to make peace, and to begin 
by a truce on land and sea. When I shall know 
what the King thinks of this idea, which I have not 
found in my manner of thinking, but which has been 
presented to me by good sense, reason, and necessity, 
I will inform you. Meanwhile, try to make M. de 
Kaunitz certain of two things that are equally true ; 
namely, that the King will never abandon the 
Empress, but that it will never do for him to be 



THE SEVE'N YEABS' WAR 209 

ruined with her. Our respective faults have made 
a hopeless wreck of a great project which was infal- 
lible in the first days of September. It is a beautiful 
dream which it would be dangerous to carry further, 
but which it might some day be possible to resume 
with better actors and better combined military plans. 
The more directly I have been charged with this grand 
alliance, the more ought people to credit me when 
I counsel peace." 

Unfortunately, Madame de Pompadour was head- 
strong, which is one of the attributes of mediocrity 
of mind. Confounding heroism with obstinacy, she 
thought that to struggle indefinitely against ill 
fortune, was to display greatness of soul. The more 
faults a general of her choice committed, the more 
inveterately did she uphold him. She was like 
those gamesters who are checked by no ill luck, and 
who never give up playing until they are ruined. 
Public opinion condemned such obstinacy. The 
French do not know how to support reverses. They 
overwhelmed Soubise, defeated at Rossbach, with sar- 
casms, and appeared to be infatuated with the victor. 
People took the fashion of exalting Frederick the 
Great and of cursing his enemy, Madame de Pompa- 
dour, Cotillion IV., as she was called. Soubise was 
the scape-goat on whom rained all the jests, chan- 
sons, and satires : — 

" Soubise dit, la lanterne h la main, 
J'ai beau chercher, oil diable est mon avmee ? 
EUe etait la pourtant hier matin, 



210 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

Me I'a-t-on prise ou I'aurais-je egaree? 

Ah ! je perds tout, je suis un etourdi ; 

Mais attendons au grand jour, k midi. 
Que vois-je ? O ciel ! Que mon ame est ravie ! 

Prodige heureux, la voila, la voila ! — 

Ah ! ventre bleu! Qu'est-ce done que cela? 

Je me trompais, c'est I'armee ennemie." ^ 

It is not by means of chansons that France can 
retrieve herself. She plays into the enemy's hand by 
showing herself more Prussian than Prussia. Bernis 
finds himself submerged by this deluge of criticisms 
and assaults. " I am threatened by anonymous let- 
ters," he wrote again to Choiseul in 1758, "with 
being presently torn to pieces by the people, and 
though I do not greatly fear such menaces, it is cer- 
tain that approaching misfortunes which cannot be 
foreseen, could easily realize them. Our friend runs 
at least as much risk." Ill in body and mind, Bernis 
could hold out no longer ; he handed in his resigna- 
tion. Louis XV. accepted it in a letter dated October 
9, 1758, which opened thus : " I am sorry. Monsieur 
the Abb^-Count, that the affairs you are charged with 

1 Soubise says, lantern in hand, 
There's no use looking, where the devil is my army ? 

It v^ras here yesterday morning, anyhow, 
Has some one taken it or have I lost it ? 

Ah ! I lose everything, I am a rattlepate ; 

But wait till broad daylight, till noon. 
"What do I see ! heaven ! How my soul is enraptured ! 

Wondrous prodigy, there it is, there it is ! — 

Ah ! zounds ! What is that then ? 

I was mistaken, 'tis the enemy's army. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' }VAE 211 

affect your health to such a point that you can no 
longer support the burden of the work. ... I consent 
with regret to your turning over the foreign affairs 
to the hands of the Duke de Choiseul, whom I think 
to be at present the only suitable person, as I am dis- 
inclined to make an absolute change in the system I 
have adopted, or even to be spoken to about it." 

The three women in coalition against Frederick, — 
Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, Elisabeth, Em- 
press of Russia, and Madame, the Marquise de 
Pompadour — carried the war as far as possible. 
France experienced nothing but reverses in every 
quarter of the globe. As Voltaire remarked, it 
seemed more exhausted of men and money by its 
union with Austria than it had been by two centu- 
ries of war against that country.^ It must be admitted, 
however, that Madame de Pompadour's obstinacy was 
very near succeeding. It is incredible that the King 
of Prussia, who stood alone on the continent against 
the forces of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and 
half of the Empire, could long have maintained so 
gigantic a struggle. An unforeseen event, the death 
of the Empress Elisabeth of Russia, January 6, 1762, 
saved him. Madame de Pompadour felt that her 
vengeance was eluding her. It was necessary to 
renounce all ideas of glory and conquest, and to 
sign the disastrous treaties of Paris and Huberts- 
burg (February 10 and 15, 1763). Louis XV. gave 

1 Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. 



212 THE COURT OF LOUIS' XV. 

up the cities he still possessed in Germany. He 
restored Minorca to England, and ceded to it Aca- 
dia, Canada, Cape Breton, the gulf and river of Saint 
Lawrence, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Dominique, To- 
bago, and the Senegal River with its factories. He 
only regained his Indian colonies on condition of not 
fortifying or garrisoning them. Finally he undertook 
to demolish anew the harbor of Dunkirk. The ruin 
of military prestige, commerce, the navy, and public 
credit, the loss of two hundred thousand men, several 
millions of money, and nearly all the colonies, — such 
is the balance sheet of the fatal war so ardently desired 
by the Marquise. 

Voltaire had good reason to exclaim : " What 
was the result of this innumerable multitude of 
combats the tale of which now wearies even those 
conspicuous in them ? What remains from all these 
efforts? Nothing but blood shed vainly in waste and 
desolate lands, villages in ruins, families reduced 
to beggary, and rarely does even a dull rumor of 
these calamities reach as far as Paris, always pro- 
foundly occupied with pleasures or equally frivolous 
disputes." Then, returning to the cause or rather 
to the pretext of the strife, the author of the Steele 
de Louis XV. says again : " It has been thought that 
it would have been very easy to prevent such mis- 
fortunes by coming to terms with the English con- 
cerning a small contested ground near Canada. 
But certain ambitious persons, to maintain their 
dignity and render themselves necessary, precipi- 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 213 

tated France into this fatal war. The same thinsf 
had occurred in 1741. The self-love of two or three 
persons was enough to lay all Europe waste. France 
needed peace so greatly that she regarded those who 
concluded it as benefactors of the country." The 
Duke de Choiseul remained popular because he had 
been able to palliate somewhat the impression caused 
by such reverses by concluding, in August, 1761, 
the family pact between the Bourbons of France, 
Spain, and Italy, and had also had tact enough to 
win the support of the fashionable literary men, the 
arbiters of renown. But his friend, Madame de 
Pompadour, was the object of public vindictiveness. 
Wounded in her ambition, her vanity, and her pride, 
she could not be consoled. 



XII 

MADAME DE POMPADOUR AND THE PHILOSOPHERS 

ONE day some one cited in presence of Louis 
XV. the example of Frederick the Great, 
who admitted the philosophers in vogue and famous 
men of letters to his intimate acquaintance. " That 
is not the way in France," said the King, " and as 
there are a few more wits and great noblemen here 
than there are in Prussia, I should want a very big 
table to gather them all around it." And then he 
counted on his fingers : " Maupertuis, Fontenelle, 
La Motte, Voltaire, Piron, Destouches, Montesquieu, 
Cardinal de Polignac." His attention was called to 
the fact that he had forgotten D'Alembert and 
Clairant. — " And Crebillon," said he, " and La 
Chauss^e ! " — " And Crebillon the younger," cried 
some one ; "■ he ought to be more amiable than his 
father; and then there are the Abbe Prevost, the 
Abb^ d'Olivet." — " Very well," replied Louis XV., 
" for twenty-five years all of that crowd would have 
dined or supped with me." 

Madame de Pompadour, who was acquainted with 
the master's dispositions, would not have made ad- 

214 



THE PHILOSOPHERS 215 

vances to tlie philosophers had she not been possessed 
by the passion for flattery. But how was she to 
resist compliments so well turned as those of Vol- 
taire ? This man, who in speaking of the Christian 
religion cried : " Crush the wretch ! " kneeled to 
a royal mistress while enlarging the boundaries of 
the most insipid flattery. The censer which he 
wanted to banish from the churches he seized in 
order to wave it respectfully before the alcove of a 
Pompadour ! 

The Marquise had in her intimacy a man who 
never quitted her ; this was Doctor Quesnay, her 
familiar, her guest, her confident, her physician, 
whom she had lodged just above her in an entresol 
of the chS,teau of Versailles. This little entresol, 
rendezvous of the boldest innovators, the most deter- 
mined free-thinkers, the most ardent materialists, was 
the secret workshop of the future Revolution, the 
laborator}^ of disorder and destruction. There, talk- 
ing, dining, declaiming, conspiring together, one 
met men such as D'Alembert, the chief of the Ency- 
clopedists; Duclos, who said of the nobles who 
flattered him: " They are afraid of us as robbers are 
of street lamps with reflectors " ; Helvetius, whose 
whole doctrine is summed up in this monstrous 
maxim, last word of egotism and immorality : 
" Man being merely a sensitive being should have 
but one object : the pleasure of the senses." Mar- 
montel relates that the Marquise de Pompadour, 
unable to induce this troop of philosophers to come 



216 THE COUET OF LOUIS XV. 

down to her salon, came to their table instead and 
chatted with them. 

Doctor Quesnay, her physician, was one of those 
peasants of the Danube, or better, to adopt a happy 
expression of the De Goncourts, one of those cour- 
tiers of the Danube who cloak a refined cleverness 
under an aspect of rudeness, and who live by the 
monarchy even while playing to the republicans. 
Strange Brutuses, contraband Catos, whose beautiful 
maxims can deceive none but simpletons ! Rude 
democrats in appearance, time-servers in reality, who 
are proud to dine with great people and whose so- 
called dignity provokes a smile ! Quesnay, this 
physical confessor, knew both the strong and the 
weak sides of the Marquise. He knew so well how 
to take her that he could quietly install in his en- 
tresol, just above the favorite's apartment, the first 
club, that which agitated for the first time the down- 
fall of the Church and the monarchy. 

Madame de Pompadour was full of coquetries and 
amiability for the most dangerous adversaries of the 
old regime. La Tour's pastel, which is at the Louvre, 
represents her seated in an armchair, her left arm 
resting on a table whereon are a globe and some 
books. The largest of these is the fourth volume 
of the Encyclopedia, that great arsenal of impiety, 
the prospectus of which had been launched by Di- 
derot in 1750. Louis XV., always undecided, at 
first tolerated the gigantic collection of writings. 
Some years later (March, 1759) he revoked the 



THE PHILOSOPHERS 217 

privileges of the editors. A royal declaration of 
unwonted violence appeared at the same time 
against the authors, printers, publishers, and colpor- 
teurs of writings aimed against religion and royal 
authority. Almost every line proclaimed a death 
penalty. But a thousand means of eluding these 
Draconian laws were found, and most frequently 
authority closed its eyes. 

Voltaire cried enthusiastically : " Long life to the 
ministry of the Duke de Choiseul ! " 

Nevertheless, warnings were not lacking to the 
favorite. She saw as clearly as Louis XV. himself 
the perils which the doctrines of the Encyclopedia 
made imminent for all kings. Madame du Hausset 
relates that a very curious anonymous letter was 
one day sent to the King and his mistress. As the 
author was bent on accomplishing his purpose, he 
had sent one copy to the lieutenant of police, sealed 
with this address : For the King ; one with these 
words : To Madame de Pompadour^ and still another 
to M. de Marigny. This letter, which greatly affected 
Louis XV. and his Marquise, struck them all the 
more forcibly because it was written in very respect- 
ful terms. Among other remarkable passages it 
contained the following prediction : " The Encyclo- 
pedists, under pretext of enlightening men, are sap- 
ping the foundations of religion. All sorts of liberty 
depend upon each other: the philosophers and the 
Protestants tend to republicanism as well as the 
Jansenists. The philosophers attack the trunk of 



218 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the tree, the others some of its branches ; but their 
efforts, without being concerted, will some day bring 
it down. Add to these the Economists, whose object 
is political liberty, as that of the others is liberty of 
worship, and the Government may find itself in 
twenty or thirty years undermined throughout and 
falling tumultuously into ruin." 

These prophecies of the coming Revolution are 
incessantly renewed in the writings of one of the 
ministers of Louis XV., the Marquis d'Argenson. 
It is he who writes in January, 1750 : " Republican- 
ism is every day gaining on philosophic minds. 
People take an aversion to monarchisra through 
demonstration. In fact, it is only slaves and 
eunuchs who aid monarchism by their false wis- 
dom." And on December 20 of the same year: 
" See how many philosophic writers there are at 
present. The Avind from England blows over this 
stuff. It is combustible. Look at the style in 
which Parliament remonstrances are written. These 
procureurs general of Parliaments, these State syn- 
dics, would at need become great men. All the 
nation would take fire ; the nobility would gain the 
clergy, and then the third estate. And if necessity 
should arise for assembling the States-General of the 
realm to regulate the demands for money, these 
States would not assemble in vain. One should be 
careful ; all this is very serious." 

It must be owned that D'Argenson is a true 
prophet. Every day he accentuates his sinister pre- 



THE PHILOSOPHERS 219 

dictions. September 11, 1751, lie writes : " We have 
not, like the Romans, any Visigoths or Saracens who 
might invade us ; but the Government may experi- 
ence a revolution. Consider that it is no longer 
either esteemed or respected, and, which is worse, 
that it is doing all that is needed to ruin itself. The 
clergy, the army, the Parliaments, the people high 
and low, are all murmuring, all detaching themselves 
from the Government, and rightly. Things are go- 
ing from bad to worse." He returns to the charge 
September 9, 1752 : " The bad effects of our govern- 
ment by absolute monarchy are resulting in persuad- 
ing France and all Europe that it is the worst of 
governments. ... A mild but inactive prince 
allows the abuses to grow which were commenced 
by the pride of Louis XIV. ; no reform when it 
is necessary, no amelioration, appointments blindly 
made, prejudices without inquiry ; everything shows 
an increasing tendency toward national ruin. Every- 
thing is falling into tatters, and private passions are 
working underhand to ruin and destroy us." 

Is it not a curious thing to hear, forty years before- 
hand, the first mutterings of the formidable tempest 
which was to engulf everything, — nobility, clergy, 
Parliaments, monarchy? We are in the year 1750. 
The archers have arrested, as a police measure, cer- 
tain vagabond children who were begging in Paris. 
Suddenly a rumor spreads that abductions are multi- 
plying and that no family is any longer in security. 
Popular imagination is excited, overheated. People 



220 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

say that in order to restore his wasted forces the 
kingly debauch^ takes baths of children's blood, like 
a new Herod. Madame de Pompadour, who has 
been imprudent enough to come to Paris, has barely 
time to escape from being torn to pieces. The peo- 
ple want to go to Versailles and burn the chateau, 
built, as they say, at their expense. The exasperated 
King says that hereafter he will not pass through 
Paris when going to Compi^gne. " What ! " he 
cries, " shall I show myself to these villainous people 
who say I am a Plerod ! " And to avoid entering 
thereafter the capital of which he has conceived a 
horror, he establishes outside the walls the road which 
is now called the path of the Revolt. 

The tide of anger rises — rises incessantly against 
the favorite. The people overwhelm her with curses ; 
they call her the King^s hussy. The daughters of 
Louis XV. designate her by a still more vulgar name. 
In November, 1751, the Dauphin and Dauphiness, on 
their way to Notre Dame, cross the bridge of the 
Tournelle. Some two thousand women surround 
them. " We are djdng with hunger ! " they say. 
" Bread ! bread ! " The Dauphiness trembles like a 
leaf. The Dauphin causes several louis to be distrib- 
uted. " Monseigneur," say the women of the people, 
" we do not want your money. It is bread we want. 
We love you much. Let that wretch be sent away 
who is governing the kingdom and ruining it ! If 
we had hold of her, there would soon be nothing left 
of her but relics." 



THE PHILOSOPHERS 221 

If such were popular impressions before the Seven 
Years' War, it is easy to comprehend what they must 
have been after the national humiliations which over- 
whelmed unhappy France. Madame de Pompadour 
thought she could remedy the immense unpopularity 
which pursued her by flattering still more the philos- 
ophers who could blow the trumpet of Renown for 
her. These singular patriots, who had celebrated the 
glory of the victor of Rossbach as if he had been a 
Titus or a Marcus Aurelius, asked only one thing to 
console them for the afflictions, shames, and miseries 
of their country : a regular persecution against the 
Jesuits. Madame de Pompadour was ready to fol- 
low Voltaire's disciples on to this ground. She 
might have hesitated if the Jesuits had been her 
flatterers, if they had made a pretence of being her 
dupes, if they had concluded to play a role of com- 
plaisance in the comedies of her pretended repent- 
ance, if they had seemed to take her for another 
Maintenon, for a mother in Israel. But she did not 
forget that when, in 1756, she had been obliged to go 
to confession in order to be eligible for an appoint- 
ment as lady of the Queen's palace, Pere de Sacy had 
refused her absolution, and that when the attempt 
was made on the King, in 1757, P^re Desmarets had 
nearly obliged her to leave the court. Hence the 
Jesuits were condemned. A Parliament decree of 
February 22, 1764, commanded that within eight 
days they should take an oath not to live any longer 
according to their institute, to abjure the condemned 



222 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

maxims, and to hold no correspondence with their 
former superiors. " When the Jesuits were ex- 
pelled," says Chateaubriand, " their existence was not 
dangerous to the State ; the past was punished in the 
present ; that often happens among men ; the Provin- 
cial Letters had deprived the Company of Jesus of its 
moral force. And yet Pascal is merely a calumniator 
of genius ; he has left us an immortal lie." 

The great crime of the Jesuits was to have dis- 
pleased the Marquise de Pompadour. One saw holy 
missionaries, untiring apostles, illustrious professors, 
men who had honored religion and science, old men 
surrounded by the esteem of all honest people, driven 
from their houses, deprived of all resources, expelled 
from France with a rigor and injustice so cruel that 
certain philosophers thought they could take up their 
defence in the name of humanity. Those Jesuits 
whom Madame de Pompadour was driving out, 
Frederick the Great was to shelter in his dominions. 
" They are the best priests I have ever known," said 
he. Catherine II. was to welcome them to her vast 
states and make use of them in founding educational 
establishments. 

Voltaire triumphed. "Ferney was the European 
court," says Chateaubriand again in his Analyse 
raisonnee de VHistoire de France; "this universal 
homage rendered to the genius who was sapping by 
redoubled blows the foundations of society as it then 
existed, is characteristic of the approaching transfor- 
mation of that society. And nevertheless it is true 



THE PHILOSOPHERS 223 

that if Louis XV. had caressed ever so slightly the 
flatterer of Madame de Pompadour, if he had 
treated him as Louis XIV. treated Racine, Voltaire 
would have abdicated the sceptre, he would have 
bartered his power against a distinction of the ante- 
chamber, just as Cromwell was momentarily ready 
to exchange the place he now holds in history for 
the garter of Alix of Salisbury ; these are mysteries 
of human vanity." 

Madame de Pompadour had sought the eulogies 
of Voltaire ; she obtained them. From the moment 
when she persecuted the Jesuits she had a right to 
his approbation. When she dies, the patriarch of 
Ferney will be almost affected. He will write to 
Damilaville : " Consider, dear brother, that true men 
of letters, true philosophers, should regret Madame 
de Pompadour. She thought as she ought to ; no 
one knows that better than I. Truly, we have sus- 
tained a great loss." And to Cardinal de Bernis : 
" I think, Monseigneur, that Madame de Pompadour 
was sincerely your friend, and if it be permitted me 
to go further, I think from the depths of my rustic 
retreat that the King experiences a great privation. 
He was loved for himself by a soul born sincere, 
who had justness in the mind and justice in the 
heart." Voltaire is always the same. What he lacks 
is not simply religious faith, but the moral sense. 

While the foundations of the monarchy were 
cracking on every side, the patriarch of Ferney, that 
ancient courtier of noble lords and sovereigns, was 



224 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

trembling with joy and pride. "All tliat I see," 
he wrote to M. de Chauvelin, April 2, 1762, "is 
sowing the seeds of a revolution which will in- 
fallibly arrive, but which I shall not have the pleasure 
of witnessing. The light is spreading so from place 
to place, that it will burst out on the first occasion, 
and then there will be a fine row. The young men 
are very lucky ; they will see many things ! " 
Madman, who regretted not being destined to see 
the scaffolds of '93 ! 

Madame de Pompadour also felt that the political, 
social, and religious edifice would crumble within 
a few years. But why concern one's self about the 
future ? Why be saddened by dismal thoughts and 
gloomy presentiments? What the haughty favorite 
desired was the ability to retain to her last day, her 
last hour, her sceptre as queen of the left hand. The 
rest troubled her little. It was not Louis XV., it 
was she who said: "After me the deluge ! " 



XII 

THE DEATH OF THE MAKQUISE DE POMPADOUR 

IT is a law of Providence that no one can shine 
without suffering, and that jealous Fortune 
avenges herself for all the successes that she grants. 
Women are like conquerors : they always expiate 
their triumphs. For these queens d la mode, these 
dazzling magicians who appear like meteors and 
who live amid a cloud of incense, there is after 
all no alternative but death or dethronement. To 
die or to grow old, that is the terrible dilemma from 
which they are unable to extricate themselves. 
Women whose attractions have not been more than 
ordinary bend to this common law with sufficient 
resignation. But the celebrated beauty, the haughty 
beauty who delights in herself as if her youth were 
never to end, secretly revolts against cruel destiny 
and silently endures a real martyrdom. Her shriv- 
elled hand tries to retain the sceptre that is slipping 
from it. She is unwilling to descend from the 
throne whence she has been used to surve}'' a crowd 
of servile adorers. As the changes come on grad- 
ually, in a manner hardly perceptible, she has proba- 

225 



226 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

bly failed to notice tlie precursory symptoms of lier 
decline. She is told on all sides that she is more 
seductive, more radiant, than' ever. Then, in this 
last blossoming of her departing youth, she experi- 
ences that indefinable sentiment, that blending of 
unquiet joy and voluptuous melancholy, which takes 
possession of the soul under the light of the last 
bright days of autumn. When one looks at the 
azure sky, one cannot realize that winter is so near. 
But if one drops one's eyes, the yellowing leaves 
that cover the ground or are swept away by the 
wind, remind one that the feast of nature is draw- 
ing to a close. The woman who longs most to 
preserve her illusions concerning the perpetuity of 
her youth, finds warning accusations which afflict 
and terrify her. The first wrinkles, the first gray 
hairs ; the color which needs to be touched up, the 
lips and eyes which call imperiously for paint ; the 
insolent mirror which nevertheless one cannot break 
because it is in opposition to the flatterers, because 
in its mute language it brutally declares the truth ! 

Madame de Pompadour was forty-two years old. 
Aged prematurely by the unwholesome emotions of 
intrigue, vanity, and ambition, she was suffering 
both in body and in mind. Incessant palpitation 
of the heart disturbed her. Fever was her constant 
guest. On nearing the end of her career she looked 
back sadly over the road she had traversed, and com- 
prehended at last the inanity of the things in which 
she had vainly sought for happiness. But for a 



DEATH OF THE MAEQUISE 227 

true repentance she lacked a religious faith like 
that of Mademoiselle de La Valliere. In default of 
faith, the Marquise had great courage. She strove 
energetically against disease, but she remained worldly 
and theatrical even in suffering and death. " She 
would no longer appear in Paris," says M. Ars^ne 
Houssaye ; " at court she never showed herself ex- 
cept by lamplight, in the apparel of a queen of 
Golconda, crowned with diamonds, wearing twenty 
bracelets, and dragging after her an Indian robe 
embroidered with gold and silver. It was always 
the divine Marquise of other days ; but presently, 
when one looked closel}^ one discovered that it 
was but a pastel, still charming, but rubbed out 
here and there. It was at the mouth that her beauty 
began to fade. She had early contracted the habit 
of biting her lips, to conceal her emotions. By the 
time she was thirty, her mouth had lost all its vivid 
freshness. It was necessary to repaint it after every 
meal and every kiss ! " ^ Her eyes had retained all 
their brilliancy. But the rest of her person was 
plainly aging. She tried in vain to conceal her 
excessive meagreness under the skilful devices of 
the toilette. She was a woman stricken by death. 
She fell ill at Choisy, and while there was still 
time she asked to be taken back to Versailles in 
order to die as she had lived, amidst the evidences 



1 See the witty and interesting work by M. Arsene Houssaye : 
Louis XV. 1 vol., Dentu. 



228 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

of her power. Her friends had an instant of hope, 
for a slight amelioration was produced. The poet 
Favart instantly produced this stanza : — 

" Le soleil est malade, 
Et Pompadour aussi ; 
Ce n'est qu'une passade, 
L'un es I'autre est gueri ; 
Le bon Dien, qui seconde 
Nos voeux et iiotre amour, 
Pour le bonheur du monde, 
Nous a rendu le jour 
Avec Pompadour." 1 

Palissot sent the following verses to the Marquise : — 

" Vous etes trop chere h, la France, 

Au dieu des arts et des amours, 
Pour redouter du sort la fatale puissance. 

Tous les dieux veillaient sur vos jours, 
Tous etaient animes du zele qui m'inspire ; 

En volant a votre secours 

lis ont affermi leur empire." ^ 

1 The sun is sick, 
And so is Pompadour ; 
'Tis but a transient tiling, 
For botli are cured ; 
The good God who aids 
Our wislies and our love, 
For the welfare of the world 
Kestores to us the day 
With Pompadour. 
2 You are too dear to France, 
To the god of arts and loves, 
To fear the deadly power of fate. 

All the gods watched over your life. 
All were animated by the zeal that inspires me ; 
In flying to your rescue 
They have established their empire. 



DEATH OF THE MABQUISE 229 

Madame de Pompadour did not allow herself to be 
deceived by these fallacious hyperboles. All this 
mythology did not mislead her. She understood 
very well that there was nothing in common between 
her and the sun, and felt herself already invaded by 
the chilly shadows of death. 

"It will come at the predestined day; it will 
come," as Bossuet said, "this last illness when, amidst 
an infinite number of friends, doctors, and attendants, 
you Mall find yourself without assistance, more for- 
saken, more abandoned, than the pauper dying on the 
straw without a sheet for his burial ! For of what 
avail are these friends in this fatal malady? Only 
to afflict you by their presence ; these doctors ? only 
to torment you ; these attendants ? only to run hither 
and thither about your house with useless zeal. You 
need other friends, other servants ; these paupers 
whom you have despised are the only ones capable of 
assisting you. Why did you not think in time of 
providing yourself with such friends as would now 
hold out their arms to receive you into everlasting 
tabernacles ? " ^ 

Even on her death-bed Madame de Pompadour, 
always the slave of the man whose mistress she was 
called, feared the King more than God himself. 
They say she sent to Louis XV. to ask if he desired 
her to go to confession. The King replied affirma- 
tively. A priest from Paris, the cure of the Made- 

1 Bossuet. Sermon on Final Impenitence. 



230 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

leine, administered the last sacraments to the dying 
woman. When he was about to withdraw, it is pre- 
tended that she retained him with a last smile, and 
said : " One moment, Monsieur the Cure, we will go 
away together." A few minutes before she had 
caused her will to be read to her, which commenced 
thus : " I, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de 
Pompadour, wife separated from the property of 
Charles Guillaume Lenormand d'Etioles, equerry, 
have made and written my present testament and 
ordinance of my last will, which I wish to be exe- 
cuted in its entirety. I recommend my soul to God, 
entreating Him to have pity on it, to pardon my sins, 
to grant me the grace to do penance and to die in 
dispositions worthy of His mercy, hoping to appease 
His justice by the merits of the precious blood of 
Jesus Christ my Saviour and by the powerful inter- 
cession of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints 
in Paradise. I desire that my body shall be taken to 
the Capuchins of the Place VendSme, at Paris, and 
buried in the vault of the chapel conceded to me." 
As one sees, the Marquise was not so faithless as 
the Encyclopedists claimed. The poor woman had 
learned for herself what earthly kings are. Perhaps, 
at the last hour, she turned her eyes toward the King 
of Heaven. 

She breathed her last April 15, 1764. It was long 
since Louis XV. had ceased to love her. He merely 
tolerated her. If he had kept her at court, it was 
only lest her disgrace should make her die of chagrin. 



DEATH OF THE MARQUISE 231 

This premature death was rather a release from 
embarrassment than an affliction to him. It is said 
that, seeing from one of the windows of Versailles 
the carriage starting which was to carry her coffin to 
Paris during a frightful storm, he said tranquilly : 
'' The Marquise will not have good weather for her 
journey." Then, calmly drawing out his watch, he 
calculated at what hour the funeral would reach its 
destination — and that was all. 

Madame de Pompadour's existence had been like 
a parody of real greatness. It was the same with her 
obsequies. A Capuchin had been appointed to make 
the funeral oration. He extricated himself^ from this 
heavy task like'a man of wit. "I receive," said he, 
" the body of the very high and powerful lady, the 
Marquise de Pompadour, lady of the Queen's palace. 
She was at the school of all virtues, for Her Majesty 
is a model of goodness, of modesty, of indulgence." 
And thus he went on for a quarter of an hour, mak- 
ing a well-deserved eulogy of the Queen. Marie 
Leczinska, always so charitable, was struck by the 
extreme promptness with which the too celebrated 
favorite was forgotten. " No one has anything more 
to say here of her who is no more," she remarked to 
President H^nault, "than if she had never existed. 
Such is the world; truly it is worth while to love 
it!" 

Once dead, Madame de Pompadour seemed unwor- 
thy even of hatred. Still, the men of letters and 
the artists who had formerly been protected by her. 



232 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

regretted her somewhat. Voltaire, while remember- 
ing with bitterness that she had sustained Crebillon, 
wrote to M. de Cideville : " I have been much 
afflicted by the death of Madame de Pompadour. It 
is ridiculous that an old scribbler on paper, who can 
scarcely walk, should be still living, and that a 
beautiful woman should die at forty in the midst of 
the finest career in the world. Perhaps if she had 
tasted the repose that I enjoy she would be living 
still." Diderot was more severe. He had to give a 
description of the Salon of 1765, where a picture was 
exhibited which Vanloo had painted during Madame 
de Pompadour's illness, and which represented the 
afflicted Arts addressing themselves to Destiny to 
obtain the preservation of her life. "Vanloo's sup- 
pliants," said the critic, "obtain nothing from Destiny 
which is more favorable to France than to the Arts. 
Madame de Pompadour died at a moment when she 
was thought to be out of danger. Well ! what 
remains of this woman who exhausted us of men and 
money, deprived us of honor and energy, and upset 
the political system of Europe ? The treaty of 
Versailles, which will last as long as it can ; Bouchar- 
don's Amour, which will always be admired; several 
stones sculptured by Guay, which will astonish future 
antiquaries ; a good little picture by Vanloo, which 
will be looked at sometimes ; and a pinch of dust." 



XIII 

THE OLD AGE OF MAEIE LECZINSKA 

WHEN the eyes have been fatigued by the glow 
of artificial lights, they willingly repose on 
soft and real daylight. After the haughty favorite, 
one likes to contemplate the good Queen. Compari- 
sons made between the mistress and the legitimate 
wife are always to the advantage of the second. To 
one the agitations of a troubled conscience, to the 
other peace of heart ; to one contempt, to the other 
respect; scandal to one, edification to the other. 
The Memoirs of the Duke de Luynes and of Presi- 
dent Renault make us acquainted with the qualities 
of Marie Leczinska, just as those of Madame du 
Hausset lay bare the moral plague spots of the Mar- 
quise de Pompadour. A solitary conclusion may 
be drawn from reading all of them; namely, that 
the Queen, neglected as she was, and in spite of the 
hidden r81e which contented her modesty, was, not- 
withstanding, less unhappy than the all-powerful 
favorite, who disposed of the monarchy as if it were 
a pension list. Each of them had her chagrins, but 
God gives us strength to endure the ills He sends us, 

233 



234 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

while those we create for ourselves are intolerable. 
The heaviest chains are those we forge with our own 
hands. The list of suicides is a proof in support of 
this observation. Is there, for example, an affliction 
more profound than that of a mother who loses her 
child ? Very well ! you never hear that a woman 
has taken her life because she has had a grief like 
that. On the other hand, how many suicides there 
are among the victims of pride and sensuality ! Re- 
ligion alleviates the sorrows which are in the nature 
and order of things. But griefs which are in revolt 
against Providence, afflictions voluntarily created by 
criminal caprices, or insensate ambitions, have in 
them something inconsolable and incurable. Madame 
de Pompadour vainly sought an asylum for her soul. 

The Queen found at the foot of altars such a 
strength that after kneeling before the image of 
our Saviour Jesus Christ, she could, on rising, 
drink the cup of bitterness without its leaving a 
trace upon her lips. 

While the guilty mistress beheld with such spite 
and vexation the departure of her youth, the virtu- 
ous wife experienced neither pain nor regret at 
growing old. It is the privilege of honest women 
to accept the laws of our common destiny without a 
murmur, and not to attempt a foolish struggle against 
nature in the hope of repairing the irreparable rav- 
ages of years. The Marquise loaded her face, with- 
ered by anxieties, with rouge and powder, and 
exhausted all the science of a desperate coquetry in 



THE OLD AGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA 235 

the effort to keep up an illusion. Marie Leczinska, 
on the contrary, did not entertain for a moment the 
thought of rejuvenating herself. Casanova, who 
was present at one of her dinners at Fontainebleau, 
represents her as "without rouge, simply dressed, 
her head covered with a large cap, old-looking and 
devout in aspect." This wholly Christian simplicity 
was not without its charm. The Queen possessed 
not merely goodness but wit, and her qualities were 
reflected on her spiritual countenance without the 
least pettiness, venerable with no touch of morose- 
ness. While Louis XV. and his mistresses were so 
sad, so disillusionized, so disenchanted with every- 
thing, though surrounded by all their voluptuous 
pleasures, Marie Leczinska never uttered a com- 
plaint. Gaiety was in reality the basis of her char- 
acter, not that factitious, turbulent, ephemeral gaiety 
which vice knows for a moment, but that soft, con- 
tinuous, unaffected, equable gaiety imparted by a 
serene disposition and a conscience in repose. 

What an expression of soundness, of moral well- 
being ! What patience with life, what sympathetic 
serenity ! The Queen is interested in many things ; 
she is fond of honest amusements. Unlike Louis XV., 
who is bored by everything, she has a taste for music ; 
she paints a little, she embroiders, she plays the gui- 
tar, the hurdy-gurdy, the harpsichord; she willingly 
takes part in games of chance. President H^nault 
introduces us into the cabinet, whither she withdraws 
after having dined alone in public, in accordance with 



236 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the formalities of etiquette : " Here," he says, " we 
are in another climate ; this is no longer the Queen, 
but a private person. Here one finds work of all 
descriptions, tapestry, arts of every sort, and while 
she is working she kindly tells us what she has been 
reading ; she mentions the parts that have impressed 
her and appreciates them." 

Look at Latour's pastel, so admirably described by 
Sainte-Beuve. " It is a half-length portrait of the 
Queen. She holds a closed fan in one hand; she 
turns toward the spectator like some one who is 
thinking, and who is going to say something arch, 
some innocent piece of slyness. Her hair is slightly 
powdered; on her head she wears a point of black 
lace, a sort of little fichu called a fancJionnette ; a 
mantelet of pale blue silk, with puffings or ribbons 
of grayish white, the shades are so blended that they 
lose themselves in each other. A tranquil harmony 
pervades all the tones. The lips delicate, somewhat 
thin, turning up at the angles ; the eye small and 
brilliant ; the nose a trifle saucy, — everything in 
this countenance breathes gentleness, subtlety, arch- 
ness. If you know neither her rank nor her name, 
you will say that this middle-aged person can cer- 
tainly make a sound and appropriate repartee ; that 
she has the grain of salt without bitterness." 

How many times, at Versailles, I have stopped for 
a while in the Queen's bedchamber,^ in that chamber 

1 Room No. 116 of the Notice du Musee, by M. Eudore Soulifi. 



THE OLD AGE OF MARIE LECZIN8KA 237 

which was occupied by Marie Leczinska from Decem- 
ber 1, 1725, the day of her arrival at the palace of 
Louis XIV., until June 24, 1768, the day of her 
death ! At the back of the former alcove, on the 
right, over a door which led to the small apartments 
of the Queen,! now hangs Nattier's fine portrait of 
Marie Leczinska. The wife of Louis XV. is sitting 
down, dressed in a red gown bordered with fur, her 
arm leaning on a pier-table, on which lie the crown, 
the royal mantle, and a New Testament. There is 
nothing studied, nothing theatrical, in either the 
pose, the countenance, or the costume. It is a blend- 
ing of kindliness and dignity. It is a queen, but a 
Christian queen. 

After the pencil, the pen ; after Nattier, Madame 
du Deffand. Listen to the famous Marquise, ordi- 
narily so sarcastic : — 

" Thdmire has much wit, a sensitive heart, a kindly 
disposition, an interesting face. Her education has 
imprinted in her soul a piety so veritable that it has 
become a sentiment, and one which serves her to 
regulate all others. Themire loves God, and next 
to him all that is lovable ; she knows how to bring 
solid matters and agreeable ones into harmony. She 
occupies herself with each in turn, and sometimes 
combines them. Her virtues have, so to say, the 
germ and pungency of passions. To admirable 
purity of manners she joins extreme sensibility; to 

1 No. 122 of the Notice. 



238 TEE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the greatest modesty a desire to please which would 
by itself achieve its object. Her diseernment makes 
her penetrate all caprices and understand all follies ; 
her goodness and charity make her endure them 
without impatience, and rarely permit her to laugh 
at them. . . . The respect she inspires is based 
rather on her virtues than her dignity. One has 
entire freedom of mind when with her ; one owes it 
to the penetration and delicacy of hers. She under- 
stands so promptly and so subtly that it is easy to 
communicate to her whatever ideas one desires, with- 
out infringing the circumspection demanded by her 
rank. One forgets, on seeing Th^mire, that there 
can be other grandeurs, other elevations, than those 
of her sentiments ; one almost yields to the illusion 
that there is no interval between her and us than 
that of the superiority of her merits ; but a fatal 
awakening acquaints us that this Th^mire, so per- 
fect, so amiable, is the Queen." 

No one was a more faithful friend than Marie 
Leczinska. The little circle amidst which she lived- 
displayed as much affection as respect for her. After 
supper she went almost every evening to the apart- 
ment of the Duchess de Luynes, her lady of honor. 
There she met, besides the Duke and Duchess, Car- 
dinal de Luynes, the Duke and Duchess de Chevreuse, 
and President Renault. This was a time of recrea- 
tion and pleasant talk. The learned president shone 
there by his wit. One day he offered the Queen the 
manuscript of his Ahrege chronologique. She re- 



THE OLD AGE OF MABIE LEGZINSKA 289 

turned it with the following words : " I think that 
M. Hdnault, who says so many things in so few 
words, can hardly like the language of women who 
talk so much to say so little." In lieu of signature, 
she had written : Devinez qui (Guess who). The 
gallant author replied at once : — 

" Ces mots traces par une main divine , 
Ne peuvent me causer que trouble et qu'enibarras. 
C'est trop oser si men coeur les devine ; 
C'est etre ingrat que ne deviner pas." ^ 

Another time, Fontenelle, then ninety-two years 
old, had addressed these verses to the President : — 

" II f allait n'etre vieux qu'a Sparte, 
Diserit les anciens ecrits. 
Grand Dieu ! combien je m'en ecarte, 
Moi qui suis si vieux dans Paris. 

Sparte ! 6 Sparte ! helas ! qu'etes-vous devenue ? 
Vous saviez tout le prix d'une tete chenue. 

" Plus dans la canicule on etait bien fourre, 
Plus I'oreille etait dure et I'oeil mal eclaire, 
Plus on deraisonnait dans sa triste famille, 
Plus on epiloguait sur la moindre vetille, 
Plus on avait de goutte et d'autre beatille, 
Plus on avait perdu de dents de leur bon gre, 
Plus on marchait courbe sur sa grosse bequille, 
Plus on etait, enfin, digne d'etre enterre, 
Et plus dans ses remparts on etait honore. 

1 These lines, traced by a hand divine, 
Cannot but cause me trouble and embarrassment. 

'Twere too much daring should my heart divine them ; 
'Twere too ungrateful not to guess them. 



240 THE COUBT OF LOUIS XV. 

" O Sparfce ! 6 Sparte ! helas ! qu'etes-vous devenue ? 
Vous saviez tout le prix d'une tete chenue." ^ 

After reading these verses, the Queen wrote to 
President Renault : " Say to Fontenelle that a head 
like his ought to find Sparta everywhere." The old 
man, very much flattered, responded by the following 
quatrain : — 

" Les ans accumules me poussent trop k bout. 
Je ne puis plus, helas ! trouver Sparte partout, 

Mais vous, le modele des reines, 
Vous devez bien trouver partout Athenes." ^ 



1 One should not he old except in Sparta, 

Say the ancient writings. 

Great God ! how far I am out of the way, 

Who am so old in Paris. 
O Sparta ! O Sparta ! alas ! what has become of you ? 
You knew the full value of a hoary head. 

The more one muffled up in dog-days, 
The more the ear was deaf and dim the eye. 
The more nonsense one talked in his sad family, 
The more one criticised the veriest trifle, 
The more gout and similar titbits one possessed. 
The more teeth one had lost by their good will. 
The more one stooped over his heavy crutch, 
The more fit, in fact, one was to be buried. 
The more within its ramparts one was honored. 

O Sparta ! Sparta ! alas ! what has become of you? 
You knew the full value of a hoary head. 

2 Accumulated years have pushed me to extremity. 
I cannot longer, alas ! find Sparta everywhere. 

But you, the model of queens. 
Assuredly should find Athens everywhere. 



THE OLD AGE OF MABIE LECZINSKA 241 

The kindly, affectionate character of Marie Lec- 
zinska is fully displayed in the simple and friendly 
letters she addressed to the Duchess of Luynes, her 
lady of honor. We cite several of them taken at 
hazard : — 

" December 22, 1750. — Nothing could give me a 
greater pleasure than your letter, if I did not expect 
one still more sensible in four weeks, that of seeing 
you. Nevertheless, it is true, that to give me news 
of yourself sometimes, if you can do so without 
injuring yourself, would help to alleviate a time 
which already seems very long to me. All I ask of 
you is not to be thankful for my friendship; it is 
wholly due to you. Your letter affected me to tears. 
Yes, God will preserve you as long as I live ; I ask 
it of Him with all my heart. When I write to M. de 
Luynes, I say : ' I embrace Madame de Luynes,' but 
since it is to you for him, I think it more honest to 
beg you to take the trouble for me. And Monsei- 
gneur, what would he like? I think it would be 
better to enclose all in the benediction I ask for 
him." 

The Duke de Luynes had once sent the Queen 
a casket as a New-Year's gift. Marie Leczinska 
thanked him in the following note, dated January 1, 
1751 : " It is useless to say the casket is charming, 
new in style, in a word, nothing so pretty in the 
world; one knows all that. But what one doesn't 
know is that I am like a child with a plaything that 
pleases it. It pleases me with the same candor, 



242 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

except that the gratitude proceeds from a person 
who knows the world a little, and even at her own 
expense, and whom God has granted the grace of 
having amiable and estimable friends wholly corrupt 
though she is." 

Among other things the casket contained a pair 
of spectacles of which the good Queen's eyes stood 
in need. " Here I am gay for the whole day from 
Madame de Luynes' good-night," she wrote to the 
Duke, January 2, 1751. " Do you know what I was 
doing when I received Monseigneur's letter ? I was 
with . . . guess who ? . . . my fine new spectacles (les 
h&aux yeux de ma cassette). Never did VAvare love 
his own so much, I am hurrying to get to High 
Mass. I embrace Madame de Luynes, I bow before 
Monseigneur, and I wish you good-day." 

The Duchess's shortest absences seemed like an 
eternity to Marie Leczinska. At such times she 
wrote letter on letter to her lady of honor, saying 
that long correspondences are the delights of friend- 
ship. Here is a letter which shows what a tender 
friend the Queen was. On receiving this heartfelt 
epistle, the Duchess de Luynes must have been pro- 
foundly affected : — 

"January 23, 1751. — Do you know what pleasure 
I gave myself last evening? I went to surprise 
M. de Luynes in his apartment; I found him just as 
he had finished his supper with Monseigneur (the 
Bishop of Bayeux), in his pretty little room. I can- 
not tell you what joy I felt in seeing your apartment 



THE OLD AGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA 243 

again ; I rested there a moment in order to preserve 
it, for, not finding you tliere yet, I began to be afraid 
of what might succeed it. Pleasures which are only 
imaginary need to be taken care of. I impatiently 
await the real ones." 

To great goodness Marie Leczinska joined solid 
information. She knew six languages, — Polish, 
French, Italian, German, Swedish, Latin. Men of 
letters were struck by the shrewdness of her judg- 
ments on the things of the mind. Several of her 
maxims have been preserved, which attest a lofty 
soul and a profound knowledge of the human heart. 
Here are some of them : " We ought not to reflect 
more on the faults of others than will suffice to pre- 
serve ourselves from them. — Human wisdom teaches 
us to conceal our pride ; religion alone destroys it. — 
To live peaceably in society, we must open our eyes 
to the qualities which please us, and shut them 
on the follies and caprices which shock us. — The 
women who pique themselves most on knowing what 
it is allowable for them to be ignorant of are those 
who care least about instructing themselves concern- 
ing what it is shameful not to know. — Many princes 
having regretted, when dying, that they had made 
war, we never see any who repented of having loved 
peace. — Good kings are slaves, and their people are 
free. — The only thing which can make amends for 
the slavery of the throne is the pleasure of doing 
some good. — In politics, as in morals, the shortest 
way to make men happy is to endeavor to make 
them virtuous." 



244 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The sovereign who expressed such thoughts as 
these was not an ordinary woman. She surpasses 
all the favorites of her husband, not merely in 
heart and virtue, but also in intelligence, knowledge, 
and wit. 



XIV 

MAKIE LECZmSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 

MARIE LECZINSKA was a tender mother. 
She surrounded her daughters and her son 
with the most devoted cares, and knew how to in- 
spire them with Christian sentiments. M. Michelet, 
who, in his latest works, tried to sully whatever he 
touched, has tried in vain to cast odious ridicule on 
the daughters of Louis XV. In spite of his venom- 
ous insinuations, his calumnious influence, he has 
been unable to extinguish the aureole of purit}'- sur- 
rounding the brows of these virtuous princesses. 
The truth may be found in the excellent work of 
M. Edouard de Barthelemy, an impartial judge, a 
critic full of sagacity.^ A curious book, recently pub- 
lished by M. Honore Bonhomme,^ has also avenged 
the memory of the daughters of Louis XV. against 
attacks which the most bitter adversaries of the mon- 

1 Mesdames de France, Jilles de Louis XV., by Edouard de 
Barthelemy. Didier. 

2 Louis XV. et sa famille, after unpublished letters and docu- 
ments, by Honore Bonhomme. 1 Vol., Dentu. 

246 



246 THE COURT OF LOUIS XY. 

arcliy and the most violent of pamphleteers had not 
permitted themselves. 

All of the daughters of the King, with the excep- 
tion of Madame Adelaide, spent their childhood at 
the Abbey of Fontevrault. Cardinal Fleury thought 
the presence of the little princesses at Versailles 
entailed too much expense, and Louis XV., yielding 
to the suggestions of his parsimonious minister, 
regretfully determined on separating himself from 
his children. Adelaide alone, by dint of prayers and 
supplications, was able to escape the abbey. On re- 
turning from Mass, she threw herself at her father's 
feet, and, although only seven years old, succeeded 
in gaining her cause. The King wept a little, says 
Barbier, and promised her that she should not go 
away. 

It is easy to comprehend how much the good 
Queen must have suffered from this parting with 
her daughters. She wrote to the Duchess de Luynes, 
October 12, 1747 : " The King surprised me by show- 
ing me the portraits of my daughters from Fonte- 
vrault. I did not know they had been painted. The 
two eldest are really beautif al, but I have never seen 
anything so agreeable as the little one. She has an 
affecting expression, very remote from sadness. I 
have never seen anything so singular ; she is touch- 
ing, sweet, spiritual. If you find my letter too long, 
make allowances for the tenderness of a mother and 
the confidence of a friend." 

The six daughters of Louis XV. were born : the 



MARIE LECZINSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 247 

twins, Elisabeth and Henriette in 1727 ; Adelaide in 
1732 ; Victoire in 1733 ; Sophie in 1734 ; Louise, 
the future Carmelite, in 1737. 

The three princesses of whom the Queen speaks 
in the letter we have just quoted, and who were 
still at Foutevrault, were Victoire, Sophie, and 
Louise. The twins, Elisabeth and Henriette, had 
quitted the convent in 1739, and the former had 
soon afterwards married the Infant Don Philip, son 
of Philip v.. King of Spain. Thereafter she is des- 
ignated as Madame Infanta. The six sisters were 
all spoken of as Mesdames de France. Nevertheless, 
there was but one of them who married. When she 
took her departure for Spain, at the age of twelve 
years (August 31, 1739), the twin sisters exchanged 
heartrending farewells. They could not resign them- 
selves to separation. " 'Tis forever ! " they cried, 
their voices broken by sobs. Louis XV. accom- 
panied his daughter as far as Plessis-Picquet. The 
Duke de Luynes relates that while on the road he 
gave his dear child most pathetic advice concerning 
the conduct she should observe in her new country, 
where, said he, her mild temper would infallibly win 
all hearts. He spoke to her with so much affection 
and tenderness that all who were in the carriage were 
melted to tears. 

In 1748, the husband of Madame Infanta obtained 
the sovereignty of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. 
Before going to their new dominions with her hus- 
band, the daughter of Louis XV. came to see her 



248 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

parents at Versailles. This was a delightful moment 
for the royal family. Princes and princesses made 
few journeys in the eighteenth century. What joy 
to embrace a father, mother, brother, sisters, who 
had never expected to see one again ! Marie Lec- 
zinska returned thanks to heaven. The little girl of 
twelve, who had left Versailles, returned thither a 
young woman in all the brilliancy of her twenty- 
second year. The Dauphin was beside himself with 
joy. In the first moment he embraced every one 
he saw, even the lady's maids (December, 1748). 
Sophie and Louise were still at the convent of Fon- 
tevrault, but Henriette, Adelaide, and Victoire were 
at Versailles. Their sister's arrival was an extreme 
happiness for them. Madame Infanta, so delighted 
to be once more with her family, had not courage to 
leave them. Months passed without her being able 
to decide on quitting Versailles, where her filial 
and sisterly heart experienced emotions so sweet. 
Nevertheless, it was necessary to be resigned. The 
dreaded moment arrived in October, 1749. The fare- 
wells must be spoken. It cost Henriette so much to 
part with her beloved sister that she fainted several 
times. The Dauphin was in tears, and Louis XV., 
who loved his daughters most profoundly, showed 
by his grief all the strength of his paternal tenderness. 
Madame Infanta returned to Versailles some years 
later, but at that time the joy of her return was not 
untroubled. The Princess no longer found her twin 
sister, that dear Henriette whom she regarded, so to 
say, as the half of her soul. 



MARIE LECZINSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 249 

Henriette had just died at the age of twenty-four 
(February 10, 1752). This young girl, as unhappy 
as sympathetic, was certainly one of the most touch- 
ing figures in the feminine gallery of Versailles. M. 
Honor^ Bonhomme has made an exquisite portrait 
of her, from both the physical and the moral point 
of view : " Of a sickly constitution, Madame Hen- 
riette had that ivory whiteness of complexion pecu- 
liar to the daughters of the North, and which her 
mother, Polish in blood and race, seemed to have 
transmitted to her along with life. Delicate, tall, 
and slender, there was something dreamy and inspired 
in her person. Her mild, pure features, aristocratic 
in their outline, charmed and yet inspired respect; 
her smile was melancholy, and her whole appearance, 
in which gloom seemed constantly warring against 
brightness, bore the impress of fatality. It was 
because she carried in her heart the secret of her 
destiny. Like pale Ophelia, she was to die while 
gathering flowers, and like Myrto, the young Taren- 
tine of Andr^ Chenier, she was never to cross the 
threshold of the spouse. For the rest, inwardly ani- 
mated by the sacred fire, enamored of great things, 
she possessed all subtleties of the mind as well as all 
delicacies of the heart. Looking into her great, 
dreamy eyes, which seemed to reflect the dormant 
limpidity of deep lakes, one divined what abysses of 
tenderness and devotion were hidden underneath, 
and felt a presentiment that her first love would also 
be her last, that she would die there where her soul 
had fixed itself." 



250 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

That, in fact, is what happened. Madame Hen- 
rietta had conceived for the young Duke de Chartres, 
son of the Duke d'Orleans, an affection which was 
returned. The Marquis d'Argenson wrote, Novem- 
ber 30, 1739 : " A secret effort is being made to bring 
about a marriage between the Duke de Chartres and 
Madame seconde [so Madame Henriette was called; 
her twin sister, Madame Infanta, was known as 
Madame premier e~\, and it is believed that the King 
is determined on it and gradually working toward it. 
Nothing could be more conformable to pacificatory 
views, for Europe would plainly see from this that 
the King was disposed to substitute the Orleans 
branch to the Dauphin, rather than the Spanish 
one." 

To understand this phrase, it is necessary to recall 
that the Dauphin was not yet married, and that 
people often wondered what would happen if this 
only son of Louis XV. should die without male pos- 
terity. Many thought that in such a case the King, 
in spite of the renunciations of the treaty of Utrecht, 
would take his heir from the Spanish Bourbons, and 
not from the Orleans branch. D'Argenson was in 
favor of the latter branch. Cardinal Fleury, on the con- 
trary, pursued it with hostility, as if he had an insight 
of the future. The old minister prevailed so far, 
that the King, who had nevertheless a real liking 
for the Duke de Chartres, an amiable and estimable 
young prince, would not give his consent to the pro- 
jected marriage. One day the Duke was riding 



MABIE LECZINSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 251 

beside the King. "Sire," said he, "I had a great 
hope. Your Majesty had not taken it from my 
father. ... I could have contributed to the happi- 
ness of Madame Henriette, who would have remained 
in France with Your Majesty. May I still be allowed 
to hope?" The King inclined toward the Prince 
and sadly pressed his hand. This beautiful dream 
of love, so quickly faded, must be renounced. Three 
years later, the Duke de Chartres espoused the 
daughter of the Prince de Bourbon-Cont^. Madame 
Henriette had the courage to conceal her immense 
sorrow. She was present, death in her soul, a smile 
on her lips, at the marriage of the man she loved 
(December 9, 1743). From that day she felt herself 
heart-stricken, and her last days were merely an 
immolation. Prince Nattier has represented the 
Princess under the double emblems of Fire and 
Meditation. She is leaning against a tripod on which 
half-consumed torches are smoking. These torches 
are like the image of the nearly extinguished flame 
of the Prince to whom the young girl would willingly 
have given her faith. She never uttered a complaint, 
a murmur. Calm, grave, recollected, she meditated 
and she prayed. The stay of her twin sister at 
Versailles was like a break in the darkness of her 
night. But when this dear companion of her infancy 
departed, all the wounds of her tender and loyal 
heart reopened. 

The arrival of her three younger sisters, Victoire, 
Sophie, and Louise, who left the convent of Fonte- 



252 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

^ — ■ 

vrault at the close of the year 1750, did not console 
her. Having sacrificed her own happiness, she 
desired that at least the Duke de Chartres might 
be happy. But it was not so. The Duke had mar- 
ried a woman whose conduct was said to be anything 
but exemplary. He could not, then, forget that 
tender, that virtuous Henriette who seemed to him 
the image of sadness. The Princess wept silently 
in her oratory, and offered her sufferings to God. 
Earth was not worthy of her. 

There are characters which can only exp^-nd in a 
better world. Sorrow had undermined the constitu- 
tion of Madame Henriette. She died February 10, 
1752. " Ah ! my sister ! my dear sister ! " were her 
last words. She died as she had lived : while loving. 
"Sad sport of fate," says M. Honor^ Bonhomme, 
"poor saintly girl, virgin and martyr, who spent 
nine whole years in climbing, step after step, the 
Calvary where she yielded up her soul." 

After relating this death, the Duke de Luynes 
adds : " No one can express the sadness into which 
the King is plunged. The Queen is much afflicted, 
and also the Dauphin, Madame the Dauphiness, and 
Mesdames. Madame Adelaide does not weep, but 
silent griefs are usually the longest. Madame Hen- 
riette was much beloved. Her mild character, with- 
out ill temper and even without will, rendered her 
extremely complaisant toward the Dauphin, the 
Dauphiness, and the ladies, her sisters." 

On receiving tidings of this mournful death. Mad- 



MARIE LECZINSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 253 

ame Infanta wrote her father a most touching letter. 
She said she wished to come and mingle her tears 
with those of her family. She arrived in France in 
September, 1752, and remained with her father for a 
year. 

Madame Infanta was not happy. She did not 
greatly esteem her husband, and that Prince cut a 
rather sorry figure in the little sovereignty of Parma 
and Piacenza. He had neither money nor prestige ; 
and his wife, who was very intelligent, his wife, of 
whom Bernis said that she would make a good min- 
ister of foreign affairs, was constantly dreaming of 
some more considerable establishment for him. She 
thought by turns of exchanging the Duchy of Parma 
for Tuscany, or acquisitions in Flanders, Lorraine, or 
even Corsica. She fancied that, thanks to her fath- 
er's affection and the territorial changes in Europe, 
she would end by obtaining something. The Mar- 
quis d'Argenson, who had not much sympathy for 
her, wrote, September 27, 1753 : " It is to be hoped 
she will never come back to France. Is it just that 
the State should suffer because she was married so 
badly? Along with her go a great quantity of 
chariots loaded with all sorts of things that the King 
has given her." 

Madame Infanta returned to France a third time, 
but only to die there. She arrived at the chateau of 
Choisy, September 3, 1757. To credit M. Michelet, 
it was she alone who brought about the Seven Years' 
War. But there is no foundation for this assertion 



254 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

of tlie great writer who, toward the close of his life, 
created what one might call the school of imagina- 
tive history. At the time when she reappeared at 
court, Madame Infanta was glowing with freshness, 
brilliancy, and health. No one could have foreseen 
that her death was so near at hand. One of her last 
letters was addressed to her son Ferdinand, whom 
she had left at Parma. It commenced as follows : — 

"Life is uncertain, my son, and my character is 
too sincere for me either to vaunt or even to affect 
perfect indifference as to the length of mine ; but I 
feel that the wish to see you, to leave you worthy of 
the name you bear in the world, such, in fine, as I 
desire you, is one of the ties that attach me most 
to life, and one of the reasons, perhaps, which will 
most abridge mine by the continual torments caused 
me by this desire and the fear of not obtaining it. 
It will be a great consolation to be able to leave jovl 
an avowal of my sentiments if I die before you are 
in a condition to read it. If I live, it will serve me 
as a plan whereon to form you ; and in either case, 
it will always be to you a proof of my tenderness 
and of my care for your welfare at an age when 
many people do not yet think of it." 

Not many days after writing this letter, Madame 
Infanta was attacked by small-pox, and died Decem- 
ber 6, 1759. The twins, who had loved each other 
so tenderly, both died prematurely. Madame Hen- 
riette had died at the age of twenty-four, Madame 
Infanta at thirty-two. She was buried at Saint 



MABIE LECZINSKA AND HEB DAUGHTERS 255 

Denis, close to her sister, so that their union lasted 
even in the tomb. 

Marie Leczinska's heart was broken with grief. 
But instead of murmuring against Providence, she 
bent filially beneath the hand of God who smote her. 
Her five remaining children, the Dauphin, Adelaide, 
Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, showed her a profound 
affection. Never was a mother better loved. Louis 
XV. took pleasure in the society of his daughters. 
As a father, he had that sort of citizenlike good- 
nature which is unhappily rare among princes. Mes- 
dames lodged underneath their father, in the former 
apartment of Madame de Montespan. Madame Ade- 
laide occupied a chamber which communicated by a 
private staircase with that of her father. " Often," 
relates Madame Campan in her Memoirs, " he brought 
and drank coffee there which he had made himself. 
Madame Adelaide pulled a bell-rope, which an- 
nounced the King's visit to Madame Victoire. On 
rising to go to her sister, Madame Victoire rang for 
Madame Sophie, who in her turn rang for Madame 
Louise." 

Li a twinkling the four sisters were gathered 
around their father. At six in the evening, at the 
unbooting of the King after the chase, as people said 
in those days, the princesses came to pay a visit to 
Louis XV., but this time with a certain etiquette. 
"The princesses," says Madame Campan again, "put 
on an enormous hoop which supported a skirt 
braided with gold and embroideries. They fastened 



256 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

a long train to their waist, and liid tlie negligence of 
the rest of their habiliments by a large cape of black 
taffeta, which covered them up to the chin. Knights 
of honor, ladies, pages, equerries, ushers, carrying 
large torches, accompanied them to the King. In an 
instant the whole palace, usually solitary, was in 
movement ; the King kissed each princess on her 
forehead." In reality, he found more true happiness 
in the virtuous intimacy of his daughters than in the 
circle of his courtiers and the arms of his favorites. 
There were moments when people believed that in 
growing old the debauchee would become wise. 
" The King," wrote D'Argenson, " seems to wish for 
no society but that of his family, like a patriarch and 
a good man." 

Marie Leczinska felt thankful to her husband for 
the affection he had for his daughters. The rela- 
tions of Mesdames with their mother were full of 
confidence, sweetness, and gaiety. They liked to 
enter those little apartments of the Queen, where 
Marie Leczinska forgot the splendor of the throne to 
live modestly as a good mother. The little apart- 
ments ^ comprised three rooms : a salon, a bathroom, 
and a studio for painting. Madame the Countess 
d'Armaille, whose graceful and solid work we have 
so often had occasion to quote, has given a charming 
description of these three rooms in which Marie Lec- 
zinska spent the greater portion of her time. " Is it 

1 No. 122 of Notice du 3Iusee de Versailles, by M. Eudore Souli§. 



MARIE LECZINSKA AND HER DAUGHTERS 257 

not true," she says, " that one may divine the char- 
acter and tastes of a woman by merely inspecting the 
sanctuary of her private life, or, to speak more sim- 
ply, that place in the dwelling where she habitually 
prefers to stay ? It matters little whether this room 
be a garret or a drawing-room. Nothing is so inti- 
mate as certain interior arrangements ; nothing tells 
the story of a woman better than the way in which 
she orders the room she inhabits. In the little apart- 
ments of the Queen one found everything which 
makes the charm of a peaceful existence. Here, 
pieces of work begun for the poor, or for churches, a 
whole piece of furniture embroidered by her hand ; 
there, an open harpsichord with Moncrif's cantatas, 
Rameau's operettas, Polish hymns ; further away a 
drawing-table, a spinning-wheel provided with its 
distaff, frames for embroidering and weaving, a small 
printing-press ; then flowers, paintings, portraits of 
children, miniatures. On a console, a vase offered 
by Marshal de Nangis, a manuscript given by Cardi- 
nal de Fleury, a porcelain pagoda with verses by 
Madame de Bouffiers ; in an embrasure of the win- 
dow a cabinet containing the Queen's favorite books, 
with some verses by the Duchess de Luynes ; every- 
where souvenirs of friendship, of maternal tenderness, 
of useful or agreeable occupations." It was there 
that, surrounded by her children, the virtuous Queen 
tasted the joys of the heart, those joys imparted only 
by a good conscience, and which the mistresses for 
whom Louis XV. deserted her had never known. 



XV 



THE DAUPHINESS MARIE JOSEPHE OE SAXONY 

MARIE LECZINSKA was not less happy in her 
son than in her daughters. The bad exam- 
ples of the court had not spoiled the upright and 
honest nature of the Dauphin. As is said by Baron 
de Gleichen in his Memoirs, the piety of the young 
prince was enlightened, and his policy foresaw the 
dangers of irreligion. As son and father, as brother 
and husband, he never ceased to display the quali- 
ties of a good and virtuous heart. He had deeply 
mourned his first wife, that sympathetic Spanish 
Infanta, who died in 1746, when hardly twenty years 
old. Reasons of State demanded that, in spite of 
his great sorrow, he should promptly contract a 
second marriage. 

Louis XV. selected for his son a princess of the 
house of Saxony, after Austria and Prussia the most 
powerful of the Empire. He intended thus to con- 
solidate his German alliances. Marshal Saxe, natural 
son of Augustus II., King of Saxony, Elector of' 
Poland, and of the beautiful Countess Aurora of 
Konigsmark, was the principal agent of the negotia- 

258 



THE DAUPHINESS MARIE JOSEPHE 259 

tion which was to form a pact of union between his 
new country and his old one. A learned Saxon 
diplomatist, now in the service of Austria, Count 
Vitzthum, published some years ago an excellent 
work, based on unpublished documents and letters 
in the archives of Dresden, on the Marshal and the 
princess who espoused the Dauphin. 

Marie Josephe of Saxony, daughter of Augustus 
III., was at this time fifteen years old. She was an 
agreeable young person, with large blue eyes that 
were at once keen and gentle. Her countenance 
was intelligent, her character excellent, her educa- 
tion complete. Marshal Saxe wrote to his brother, 
Augustus III. : " Sire, what shall I say to you ? I 
find this affair advantageous at all points for your 
family, and I shall descend without regret to the 
empire of the shades after I have seen it terminated ; 
I shall have accomplished my career. I have enjoyed 
the delights of this world; glory has covered me 
with its benefits ; nothing more remained to me but 
to be useful to you, and all my destiny will have 
been fulfilled in a most satisfactory manner." 

Marshal Saxe wrote to the wife of Augustus III., 
mother of the future Dauphiness : — 

" Madame, the Most Christian King sent me word 
yesterday, that he had requested Your Majesty for 
the hand of the Princess Marie Josephe for Monsei- 
gneur the Dauphin. I flatter myself that this propo- 
sition will not displease either the Princess or Your 
Majesty, for, in truth, Monseigneur the Dauphin is 



260 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

a very good match, and I should like to live long 
enough to see our divine Princess Queen of France. 
I think that would suit her very well. She has 
always been my inclination, and it is long since 
I destined her for the crown of France, which is 
a fine enough morsel, and the Prince who will some 
day wear it is fine also. The Princess Josephe will 
have no reason to be bored while she is waiting for 
it. The kingly father-in-law is charming; he loves 
his children, and from the caresses he gave the 
late Dauphiness, I infer those which our Princess 
will have to endure. This is word for word what 
the King wrote me in a letter I received yesterday, 
written by his own hand from one end to the other. 
' You will not be vexed with this marriage, my dear 
Marshal ? Let your Princess be sure that it depends 
on her alone to make our happiness and the felicity 
of my people.' " 

In the same letter the Marshal gave some very 
sensible and prudent counsels : " I will say another 
word to the Princess. To succeed here, neither hau- 
teur nor familiarity is required; hauteur, however, 
pertaining to dignity, she can more easily incline to 
that side. The women of the court all have minds like 
diamonds, and are wicked withal. No one will fail 
in respect towards her, but they will try to entangle 
her in their continual quarrels, and at these she must 
do nothing but laugh and amuse herself. This is 
what the King does ; and if anything displeases her, 
she must address herself directly to the King : he will 



THE DAUPHINESS MARIE JOSEPHE 261 

advise and conduct her very v/ell. This confidence 
will please him. He is the only person at court wdth 
whom she should have no reserve. She should 
regard him as her refuge, her father, and tell him 
everything, good or bad, just as it happens, without 
disguising anything. With everybody else, reserve. 
If she does that, he will adore her." 

The formal demand in marriage was made at 
Dresden, January 7, 1747, by two ambassadors, one 
extraordinary, the Duke de Richelieu, the other 
ordinary, the Marquis des Issart. Richelieu wrote 
to the Count de Loss, apropos of the future Dauphi- 
ness : " I find her really charming ; nevertheless, she 
is not a beauty, but she has all the graces imaginable ; 
a large nose, thick, fresh lips, the brightest and most 
intelligent eyes in the world, and, in fine, I assure 
that if there were any such at the Opera, they would 
soon be put up at auction. I do not say too much 
to you, but I do not say so much to others." 

Marie Josephe of Saxony left Dresden, January 14, 
1747. She saw her betrothed for the first time 
between Nangis and Corbeil. The nuptial benedic- 
tion was given to the pair in the chapel of Versailles, 
February 8, 1747. Four days afterward, Marshal 
Saxe wrote to Augustus III. : " Sire, I shall have no 
difficulty in saying agreeable things to Your Majesty 
about Madame the Dauphiness, and renown will 
serve as my guaranty. No one could succeed better 
than this Princess ; she is adored by everybody, and 
the Queen loves her as if she were her own child; 



262 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

the King is enchanted with her, and M. the Dauphin 
loves her passionately. She has steered her way- 
through all this with all imaginable address ; I could 
jiot but admire her. At fifteen, according to what 
they say, there is no such thing as childhood in this 
society ; and, in truth, she has astonished me. Your 
Majesty could hardly believe with what nobility, 
what presence of mind, Madame the Dauphiness has 
conducted herself. M. the Dauphin seems a school- 
boy beside her." 

The married pair were installed on the ground 
floor, in the south wing of the central portion of the 
palace, under the Queen's apartments. (The Dau- 
phin's bedroom, where the Regent died, is now the 
third hall of the Marshals, No. 46 of M. Eudore 
Souli^'s Notice du Musee. That of the Dauphiness 
is now the second hall of the Marshals, No. 41 of the 
Notice.') It was in the latter chamber that, according 
to usage, the ceremonial of the putting to bed took 
place. In the letter we are about to quote, Marshal 
Saxe gives his brother an account of this strange 
custom : — 

" Certainly," he says, " there are moments which 
call for all the assurance of a person formed to sus- 
tain his part with dignity. Among others there is 
one, that of the bed, whose curtains are opened when 
the husband and wife have been put into the nuptial 
bed, which is terrible, because the whole court is in 
the room; and the King told me to remain near 
Madame the Dauphiness in order to reassure her. 



THE BAUPHINESS MARIE JOSEPHE 263 

She endured this with a tranquillity which aston- 
ished me. The Dauphin drew the coverings over 
his face ; but my Princess never stopped talking to 
me with a charming ease, paying no more attention 
to the people of the court than if there had been no 
one in the chamber. On approaching her, I said the 
King had ordered me to do so to keep her in counte- 
nance, and that all this would only last a moment. 
She told me I gave her pleasure ; and I did not leave 
her until her women had closed the curtains, and the 
croAvd had gone away. The}'^ departed with a sort 
of sadness, for it looked like a sacrifice, and she has 
continued to interest everybody in her. Your Maj- 
esty will laugh, perhaps, at what I have just said ; 
but the blessing of the bed, the priests, the candles, 
the brilliant pomp, the beauty and youth of the Prin- 
cess, in fine, the desire one has that she may be 
happy, — all these things taken together provoke 
more thought than laughter." 

This etiquette which weighed upon royal families 
was a heavy burden, an excessive fatigue. For two 
days the Dauphiness had eaten nothing. " Her great 
fatigue is the cause of this," the Marshal wrote again 
to Augustus III. ; " and I have told the King that if 
she could not have some rest she would fall ill. 
Indeed, I don't know how she can avoid it. I am 
completely knocked up with following her. It is so 
hot in all the apartments, what with the quantity 
of people and the candles in the evening, that it is 
enough to kill one. And besides that, her clothes 



264 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

are so heavy tliat I don't know how she has been 
able to carry them. What is still more fatiguing are 
all these endless presentations; and she wishes to 
remember all the names, which is a terrible task to a 
mind incessantly occupied, moreover, in trying to 
please and show attentions. The other day the King 
made me take up her skirt which lay on a sofa. It 
weighed, at least, sixty pounds ; not one of our cui- 
rasses weighs as much. I don't know how the Prin- 
cess could have remained on her feet eight or nine 
hours with that enormous weight." 

Marie Jos^phe knew how to make herself esteemed 
and loved. A courtier, who admired the graces and 
virtues of this good and beautiful Dauphiness, said : 
" Nobody ought to take a wife anywhere but in Sax- 
ony; and rather than dispense with a Saxon wife, 
when there are no more, I will make one out of por- 
celain." Marie Leczinska forgot the quarrels that 
had existed between the house of Saxony and her 
father for the throne of Poland. She became ten- 
derly attached to her daughter-in-law, and showed 
her an almost maternal love. 

The Dauphiness was delivered, September 13, 
1751, of a son, who bore the title of Duke of Bur- 
gundy, and who died when nine years old, after long 
and horrible sufferings which he endured, a preco- 
cious-Christian, with admirable courage. The Mar- 
quis de Pompignan wrote a biography of the little 
prince. Some years later, another child, likewise 
fated to undergo tortures, learned to read in this 



THE BAUPHINE88 MABIE JOSEPHE 265 

book : it was that most innocent of victims, the 
future Louis XVII. " How did my little uncle man- 
age to have already so much knowledge and good- 
ness?" cried the compassionate child. 

The Duke of Berry was born August 23, 1754 ; 
the Count of Provence, November 17, 1755 ; the 
Count of Artois, November 9, 1757. These three 
princes were to be called Louis XVI., Louis XVIIL, 
and Charles X., — three names which on their first 
appearance affect the imagination with a nameless 
trouble, and transport it into an unprecedented world 
of revolutions and catastrophes. 

Marie Jos^phe of Saxony had eight children, five 
only of whom survived her^ the three sons, who 
were all to reign, and two daughters, Madame Clo- 
tilde, who was Queen of Sardinia, and another whose 
mere name evokes the memory of the purest virtues, 
the profoundest piety, the most sublime sacrifices, 
the most heroic courage in sufferings, in prisons, on 
the scaffold : Madame Elisabeth. 

The Dauphiness was a perfect wife and mother. 
Her goodness, sweetness, and charity rendered her at 
once lovable and worthy of veneration. . . . One 
finds consolation for the scandals of the court in con- 
templating a united household, a Christian household 
which set an example to France. Unhappily death 
was soon to break up this virtuous and holy life. 
The Dauphin, at the age of thirty-six, fell ill in 
November, 1765. 

Had we not good reason to say, at the beginning of 



266 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

this study, that epochs in appearance most scandalous 
and corrupt contain, like every other, treasures of 
edification? The admirable death of the son of 
Louis XV. is a proof of this verity. The agony 
of the Dauphin was about to commence. 

" Thanks be to God," he said to his confessor, the 
Jesuit Callet, as soon as he saw him enter, "I have 
never been dazzled by the splendor of the throne to 
which I was summoned by my birth; I saw it only 
from the side of formidable duties by which it is ac- 
companied, and the perils that surround it; I would 
desire to have a better soul, but I hope in the infinite 
mercy." Then, turning towards his sisters and his 
wife, the good Prince exclaimed : " I cannot tell you 
how glad I am to be the first to go ; I shall be sorry 
to leave you, but I am well pleased not to remain 
behind you." The next day, November 13, the 
Archbishop of Rheims came to bring the sacraments. 
Louis XV. was kneeling at the threshold of the 
chamber, while the Duke of Orleans and the Prince 
of Cond^ approached the bed to hold the communion 
cloth. After the Mass the Dauphin said : " God has 
made me taste at this moment so sweet a consolation 
that I have never known one like it." And as the 
Queen was speaking of his recovery : " Ah, mamma ! " 
he exclaimed with vivacity, " keep that hope for your- 
self, for my part I do not desire it at all." 

The Prince, who had one day said, while looking 
at Paris from the terrace of the Chateau of Bellevue : 
" I am thinking of the delight that ought to be expe' 



THE DAUPHIN ESS MAEIE JOSEPHS 267 

rienced by a sovereign in causing the happiness of so 
many people ; " this truly exemplary Prince was 
taken, December 20, 1765, from the affection of a 
people, who honored his virtues and his sincere 
devotion. Nine days afterward, the Dauphiness 
wrote to her brother. Prince Xavier of Saxony : 
" The good God has willed that I should survive 
him for whom I would have given a thousand lives ; 
I hope He will grant me the grace to employ the rest 
of my pilgrimage in preparing, by sincere penitence, 
to rejoin his soul in heaven, where I doubt not he is 
asking the same grace for me." 

Marie Leczinska mourned bitterly for her son, who 
had always been so good, so tender, and respectful to 
her. The pious Queen was to undergo new trials. 
She surrounded her aged father with the most touch- 
ing attentions, and though far away, busied herself 
with him as though she were by his side. He was 
at Nancy, and she had just sent him a wadded dress- 
ing-gown for the coming winter. It caught fire 
while Stanislas was sleeping in his armchair ; always 
amiable and affectionate, he attempted to tranquillize 
his daughter by a note in which he wrote pleasantly : 
"What consoles me, daughter, is that I burn for 
you." This was the last letter Marie Leczinska was 
to receive from a father whom she cherished. King 
Stanislas breathed his last February 24, 1766. His 
death brought about, according to treaty stipulations, 
the definitive reunion of the duchies of Lorraine and 
Bar to France. As the Countess d'Armailld has 



268 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

said, this was Queen Marie's last gift to the land of 
her adoption. 

Afflictions succeeded each other with deplorable 
rapidity. Marie Jos^phe of Saxony died fifteen 
months after her husband, March 12, 1767, recom- 
mending her family to Marie Leczinska, who re- 
gretted her as much as if she had been her daughter. 
The Queen bowed to the decrees of Providence. 
Her soul remained strong, but her body was crushed 
by sorrow. " Give me back my children," she said, 
"and you will cure me." 



XVI 

THE DEATH OF MARIE LECZINSKA 

AT the close of that last dialogue where, in the 
harbor of Ostia, under a starry sky, overlook- 
ing the limpid waves, she aspired to that life eternal 
which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor the heart 
of man attained, Saint Monica said to her son : " My 
child, nothing any longer attaches me to earth. 
What should I do here ? Why am I still here ? I 
have realized all my hopes in this world. One thing 
there was for which I desired to sojourn awhile in 
this life, — it was to see thee a Christian before I 
died. God has given me that joy in over-measure, 
since I see thee despising all earthly felicity in order 
to serve Him. What have I to do here any longer? " 
What Saint Monica said in the harbor of Ostia, 
Marie Leczinska could say in the palace of Versailles. 
She had inspired her children with Christian senti- 
ments. Two of her daughters and her son had 
expired in the peace of the Lord. The four remain- 
ing daughters thought and lived like saints. Her 
task was accomplished. She thought of nothing now 
but dying. 

269 



270 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

The convent of the Carmelites of Compi^gne had 
become her chosen refuge. It was there that, fleeing 
from grandeurs which had never dazzled her, she 
humbled herself, annihilated herself before the King 
of Kings, before Him who strengthens and consoles. 
This Queen to whom her son had said one day : " Do 
you know, mamma, you will end by quarrelling with 
Saint Teresa ? Why do you want to be more fervent 
here than the most fervent Carmelites, and make 
still longer prayers than theirs ? " This Queen, who 
would willingly have exchanged the royal mantle 
for a serge habit, had for her oratory a cell in no 
respect different from that of the nuns. She said 
she wanted to learn how to die to the world and to 
herself. 

Madame de Campan, who knew the four last 
daughters of Louis XV. so well, thus describes the 
salutary influence which the Queen exercised over 
their destiny : " Mesdames had in their august 
mother, Marie Leczinska, the noblest model of all 
the pious and social virtues ; by her eminent quali- 
ties and her modest dignity, this princess veiled the 
wrongs with which, but too unfortunately, one was 
authorized to reproach the King; and so long as 
she lived, she guarded for the court of Louis XV. 
that dignified and imposing aspect which alone main- 
tains the respect due to power. The princesses, her 
daughters, were worthy of her ; and if some few vile 
creatures tried to launch the shafts of calumny 
against them, they fell at once, repelled by the high 



THE DEATH OF MABIE LEGZINSKA 271 

idea people entertained of the loftiness of their sen- 
timents and the purity of their conduct." 

The woman who had been able to preserve a rem- 
nant of decency in a corrupt society, and had thus 
saved the remnants of royal prestige, was surrounded 
by unmixed veneration. At this epoch, as at all 
others, one encountered types of honor and virtue, 
patriarchal and truly Christian existences, interiors 
which were sanctuaries. It will not do to judge the 
eighteenth century by the court and certain salons. 
Worthy people were still numerous, especially among 
the provincial nobility, the middle classes, and the 
people. In spite of Voltaire's attacks, in spite of the 
building of that Tower of Babel called the Encyclo- 
pedia, Christianity continued to be what it had been 
for so many centuries : the soul of France. The 
attempts of the philosophers to create a morality 
independent of religion failed miserably, and all 
good minds recognized that the Voltairian school 
was leading the nation into ruin. 

The life of Marie Leczinska may be called the 
symbol of the religious and virtuous element. In 
the face of adultery, the pious sovereign had main- 
tained the sacred rights of the family ; in spite of 
his irregularities, Louis XV. would never have dared, 
like Louis XIV., to legitimate the children of his 
debaucheries and declare them eligible to the throne 
of France. The scandal was in the boudoir of the 
favorites, the edification by the hearth fire of the 
Queen. 



272 THS: COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

As greatly as Madame de Pompadour was hated 
and despised, so greatly was Marie Leczinska 
loved and respected. Her arrival was a festival, 
her departure caused general sadness. "Is it not 
admirable," she wrote, "that I cannot leave Com- 
piegne without seeing everybody crying ? Sometimes 
I ask myself what I have done to all these people 
whom I do not know, to be so loved by them. They 
remember all my wishes." She gave away all she 
had, according to her lady of honor, the Mardchale 
de Mouchy, and when nothing was left, she sold her 
jewels. One year when the high price of bread had 
caused more than common distress, she pawned her 
precious stones and wore false ones. Her charity 
was as inexhaustible as her kindness. She had the 
virtues of a woman of the middle classes, the man- 
ners of a great lady, the dignity of a queen. The 
resignation with which she endured her sorrows 
inspired in every one a sympathy blended with re- 
spectful compassion. Public opinion paid her homage, 
envy and slander were silent in her presence. Even 
the philosophers honored her. 

In a changing epoch, when all minds and hearts 
were in disorder, she preserved three qualities which 
are rare in courts, — honesty, tact, and good sense. 
There was nothing gloomy or morose about her 
virtue. Her sweet, agreeable devotion recalled that 
of Saint Francis de Sales, the most lovable of all the 
saints. She had the gift of making herself beloved 
by a word, a smile. As has been remarked by the 



THE DEATH OF 31 ABIE LECZINSKA 273 

Countess d'Armaille, there was hardly a salon in 
France toward the close of the last century, in which 
one could not meet some old lady always ready to 
tell about her presentation at Versailles, and to be- 
come affected in reciting the compliments which the 
good Queen Marie had paid her on that memorable 
evening. Affable by nature and principle, indulgent 
by instinct and reasoned conviction, Marie Leczinska 
was distinguished among all the women of the court 
by a quality which is a force and a charm, a quality 
still more necessary to sovereigns than to private 
persons, — benevolence. 

When she fell ill, the emotion was general. Every 
Frenchman entertained for her the sentiments of a 
brother or a sister. The people besieged the doors 
of the chateau of Versailles to get tidings of her. 
Sometimes Louis XV. gave these himself. The 
churches of Paris and the provinces were crowded 
with people praying for the good Queen. 

The final moment was drawing near. The four 
daughters of Marie Leczinska spent the last nights 
at their mother's bedside with a devotion which made 
them resemble Sisters of Charity. At the moment 
when the death struggle was about to begin, Louis 
XV. kneeled beside his wife's bed, and said to her, 
weeping : " Here are our daughters whom I present 
to you." A Christian, the mother understood what 
these words implied ; and raising her eyes to heaven, 
she gave her children her last blessing. 

It is an hour of torture and anguish, a doleful 



274 THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

hour, an hour heart-rending above all, when one 
loses a cherished mother. The grief borders on stu- 
por. One feels one's self the sport of a bad dream. 
One cannot grow accustomed to so horrible a thought. 
Those holy, venerable hands will never again be laid 
in blessing on yonv head ! Those lips whence issued 
counsels so wise, words so affectionate, are closed 
forever ! That heart, so warm, so loving, is cold ; it 
beats no more. Again you call to your mother ; you 
call, and for the first time, alas ! she does not answer 
you. Then, all she has done for you, your childhood, 
your youth, your whole life, rises up before you. 
Long years of devotion, of sacrifices and tenderness, 
are concentrated in a single minute. The heart, 
invaded by memories as by a rising tide, overflows, 
and you burst into sobs. Oh ! woe to him who at 
this fatal moment believes that all ends here below! 
Woe to him who has not the conviction that the 
dead woman is in heaven, that she is watching over 
her children ; that they can still love and implore 
her; that she will always be their strength, their con- 
soler, their good angel ! But happy in the midst of 
tears, happy amid the most cruel trials, the Chris- 
tians who then recall the prayer of Saint Louis, 
lamenting his mother, Blanche of Castile : " I return 
thee thanks, O my God ! Thou hadst lent me a 
good, an incomparable, mother ; but I know well she 
was not mine ! Now, Lord, thou hast withdrawn 
her to thyself. . . . Thus has thy Providence deter- 
mined. It is true that I cherished her beyond all 



THE DEATH OF MARIE LECZIN8KA 275 

creatures in the world. . . . Nevertheless, since thou 
hast thus ordained, may thine adorable will be done ! 
My God ! may thy holy name be blessed forever ! " 

Marie Leczinska died in angelic tranquillity. She 
was still trying to say her rosary, when death inter- 
rupted on earth the prayer which the holy woman 
was about to resume in heaven. These beautiful 
words of Massillon were realized for the pious Queen : 
" The soul of the just, during the days of their mortal 
life, dare not gaze fixedly upon the profundity of 
God's judgments; they work out their salvation 
with fear and trembling, they shudder at the bare 
thought of that terrible future where the just them- 
selves will hardly be saved, if they are judged with- 
out mercy ; but on the bed of death, ah ! the God of 
peace, who manifests Himself, calms their agitations ; 
their fears cease of a sudden and are changed into a 
sweet hope, their dying eyes pierce the cloud of mor- 
tality which still environs them, and see that immor- 
tal country after which they have sighed so long, and 
where they have always dwelt in spirit." Oh ! you 
who have seen a saintly mother die, you who have in 
your hearts a regret and an expectation, do not forget ! 

It was the 24th of June, 1768, when Marie Lec- 
zinska yielded her last breath. The very day before 
she had entered her sixty-eighth year. Her reign 
had lasted forty-three years, and during that long 
period she had caused no tears to flow but those of 
joy and gratitude. Her women, her servants, her 
poor, collected the least scraps of her clothing to pre- 



276 TEE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 

serve as relics. Her mortal remains, exposed for 
eight days on a bed of state, was the object of a real 
cult on the part of the people. The Archbishop of 
Troyes preached her funeral sermon. " Pontiff of 
the living God," said he, addressing himself to the 
Archbishop of Paris, "fear not to offer above her 
tomb an incense which may one day be offered above 
her altars." Compare this life and death with those 
of the Marquise de Pompadour, if you wish to know 
what vice is, and what is virtue. 

Marie Leczinska is the last queen who has ended 
her days upon the throne of France. The women, 
who for now a century have worn the royal or impe- 
rial crown in our unhappy and inconstant land, have 
all been the innocent victims of the Revolution and 
the caprices of fate. One perished an august martyr 
on the scaffold ; another died at the moment of the 
invasion, her heart broken by the afflictions of her 
vanquished country. A third faded away almost 
forgotten in the little duchy given her in exchange 
for the finest empire of the world. A fourth died 
holily in a foreign land, regretting perhaps that she 
had been Queen ; and there is one who, at this very 
moment, is sadly rewarded for her charity and cour- 
age, her virtue and her patriotism. To-day, above 
all, might a Bossuet say before Versailles abandoned 
or the Tuileries in ruins: JEt nunc, 7-eges intelligite-! 
JEJrudimini, que judicatis terrain I And now, O 
Kings, comprehend ! Be instructed, O ye who judge 
the earth ! 



INDEX 



Abrdg^ chronologique, Henault's, 

238, 239. 
Adelaide, Madame, allowed to 

remain at Versailles, 246; her 

apartment, 255. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, the peace of, 130, 

131. 
Almases, performed at Versailles, 

140. 
Austria, France's alliance with, 

203 et seq.; an Austrian party at 

Versailles, 205. 
Artois, Count of, 265. 
Asturias, Prince of, 19. 

Bachelier, the confidant of Louis 
XV., 51. 

Barbier, quoted, 40, 44, 55; his 
criticism of Bishop Fitz-James, 
80. 

Barthelemy, lildouard de, 245. 

Beaujolais, Mademoiselle de, her 
birth, 19; affianced to Don 
Carlos, 19 ; sent back to France, 
20 ; later life and death, 21. 

Beaumont, Christopher de, sum- 
moned to the archbishopric of 
Paris, 196; his integrity to the 
Church, 196, 197; exiled, 197; his 
charge sent from Conflans to 
Paris, 198, 199; recalled by the 
King, 197 ; again exiled, 197. 

Bellevue, Chateau of, 145, 146, 151. 

Bernis, Abbe de, verses quoted, 126 ; 
his attitude towards Madame de 
Pompadour, 183, 184, 185; ac- 
cused of drawing up the treaty 
of Versailles, 206 ; his words on 
the convention of Cloister-Seven, 



207, 208 ; counsels peace, 208, 209; 
threatened, 210; resigns, 210, 
211. 

Berry, Duke of, 265. 

Bonhomme, Honore, his hook on 
Louis XV. and his family, 245, 
246; his description of Madame 
Henriette, 249. 

Bossuet, quoted, 195, 229. 

Bourbon, Duke of, prime minister, 
16; ruled by his mistress, Ma- 
dame de Prie, 16-18; his uneasi- 
ness at court, 18 ; his description 
of Marie Leczinska, 25; en- 
deavors to overthrow Fleury, 
Bishop of Frejus, 34; his down- 
fall, 34, 35. 

Burgundy, Duke of, 264. 

Campan, Madame de, quoted, 255; 
her words concerning Marie 
Leczinska, 270. 

Carlos, Don, 19. 

Charles X., 265. 

Charolais, Mademoiselle de, 50. 

Chartres, Duchess de, 76, 78. 

Chartres, Duke of, sketch of his 
career, 114, 115 ; efforts to effec*; 
a marriage between Madame 
Henriette and, 250, 251 ; his mar- 
riage, 251 ; his unhappiaess after 
marriage, 252. 

Chateaubriand, quoted, 222. 

Chateauroux, Duchess de, 1, 6; 
words of the Goncourts concern- 
ing, 71; wishes to follow the 
King to the army, 73 ; joins the 
King, 76, 77, 78; falls sick, 78; 
is compelled to leave the King, 



277 



278 



INDEX 



79; her return to Paris, 84-86; 
believes slie will regain the 
King's favor, 84, 86, 87 ; the type 
of the passionate woman, 87 ; 
among the crowd at the King's 
triumph, 88; visited by the 
King, 88, 89; invited to return 
to Versailles, 89, 90; her final 
illness and death, 90-92. 

Choiseul, Duke de, 211 ; his popu- 
larity, 213. 

Christianity, the soul of France, 
271. 

Cloister-Seven, the convention of, 
207. 

Clotilde, Madame, 265. 

Coaslin, Madame de, her insolent 
conduct tov^ard Madame de 
Pompadour, 157. 

Conti, Princess de, 125. 

D'Alembert, 215. 

Damiens, wounds Louis XV., 180- 
182. 

D'Argenson, quoted, 44, 105, 106, 
218 ; his attitude towards Madame 
de Pompadour, 183; possesses 
confidence of Louis XV., 186; 
misled as to the feelings of the 
King towards Madame de Pom- 
padour, 186 ; proposes that meet- 
ings of the ministers be held in 
the Dauphin's apartments, 187 ; 
dismissed from service, 188 ; his 
words on women in politics, 194; 
a true prophet, 218, 219. 

Dauphin, the, 109, 110; marries, 
110, 186, 187 ; surrounded by the 
people, 220; his delight at visit 
of his sister Elisabeth, 248; his 
character, 258; marries Marie 
Josephe of Saxony, 261-263; 
falls ill, 265 ; his last hours and 
death, 266, 267. 

Dauphiness, the, 220; see Marie 
Josephe. 

Deffand, Madame du, 36, 37; her 
sketch of Marie Leczinska, 237, 
238. 



Desmarets, Pere, 181, 186. 

Devin du Village, Le, performed at 
Bellevue, 146. 

Diderot, his words concerning Ma- 
dame de Pompadour, 232. 

Duclos, quoted, 215. 

Economists, the, 218. 

Elisabeth, Madame, daughter of 
the Dauphiness, 265. 

Elisabeth, Madame, the Infanta, 
marries, 247 ; goes to Spain, 247 ; 
visits her parents at Versailles, 
247, 248; her grief at her sister 
Henriette's death , 252, 253 ; spends 
a year at Versailles, 253 ; did not 
esteem her husband, 253; her 
ambitions, 253; her final return 
to France and death, 253, 254; 
accused by Michelet of causing 
the Seven Years' War, 253, 254; 
a selection from one of her last 
letters, 254. 

Elisabeth of Russia, death of, 211. 

Encyclopedia, the, 216, 271. 

Encyclopedists, the, 217, 218. 

Enfant lyrodigue, U, performed at 
Versailles, 139, 154. 

Eric/one, performed at Versailles, 
139. 

:6tioles, Madame d'. Marquise de 
Pompadour, see Pompadour, 
Marquise de. 

;^tioles, M. Lenormand d', 118, 120, 
121, 175; not anxious to take 
back his wife, 176. 

Europe, condition of, after treaty 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, 202, 203. 

Favart, verses by, 228. 

Felicite, Pauline, Mademoiselle de 
Nesle comes to Versailles, 54 ; be- 
comes mistress of Louis XV., 54; 
marries Count de Vintimille, 56; 
see Vintimille, Countess de. 

Fitz-James, Bishop, forbids Louis 
XV. absolution while Madame 
de Chateauroux remains with 
him, 79; administers extreme 



INDEX 



279 



unction to the King, 80; his 

detractors, 80. 
Fleury, Bishop of Fre'jus, 30; his 

origin and advancement, 32 ; 

preceptor of Louis XV., 32; his 

influence over Louis XV., 32; 

Madame de Prie's plot to get rid 

of, 33; departs from the court, 

34; is recalled by Louis XV., 

34; his death, 68, 246. 
Fontanelle, his verses to Marie 

Leczinska, 239, 240. 
Frederick the Great, 205, 214, 222. 
Fre'jus, Bishop of, see Fleury. 

Gresset, 139. 

Helvetius, quoted, 215. 

Renault, President, his words con- 
cerning Marquise de Pompadour, 
118; offers manuscript of his 
Abrege dironologique to Marie 
Leczinska, 238; his verses to 
Marie Leczinska, 239. 

Henriette, Madame, 247, 248; de- 
scription of her by Honore Bon- 
homnie, 249 ; her death, 248, 249 ; 
her sad love affair, 250, 251 ; her 
death, 252. 

Hermitage, the, 151. 

Infanta, Madame, see Elisabeth, 

Madame. 
Ismene performed at Versailles, 

139. 
Issart, Marquis des, 261. 

Jansenism, 194, 195. 
Jesuits, 173-175, 189-192 ; the order 
condemned, 221, 222. 

La Tour, his pastel of Madame de 
Pompadour, 216; his pastel of 
Marie Leczinska, 2.3(5. 

Leczinska, Marie, see Marie Lec- 
zinska. 

Leczinska, Stanislas, his life of ex- 
ile, 23 ; his death, 266. 

Louis XV., women of court of, 1 et 



seq.; daughters of, 2, 112, 113, 245 
et seq. ; his character and career 
reviewed, 4-10; his mistresses, 6, 
7 ; his melancholy, 8, 158 ; his 
death, 10 ; beginning of his reign, 
14; affianced to Infanta Marie 
Anne Victoire, 14, 15 ; established 
at Versailles, 15 ; coronation of, 
15; his health delicate, 18; his 
inarriage to Infanta Marie Anne 
Victoire broken off, 20, 21; his 
beauty, 25 ; marries Marie Lec- 
zinska, 26 ; meets Marie Lec- 
zinska, 27; his early married 
life exemplary, 30, 39, 40; his 
affection for Fleury, Bishop of 
Fre'jus, 32; recalls Fleury, 34; 
expels Duke of Bourbon, 34, 35 ; 
his growing indifference towards 
Marie Leczinska, 42; influences 
about him, 43^5; makes a fa- 
vorite of Madame de Mailly, 47, 
48; changes his apartments, 48; 
his trifling life, 49, 52 ; becomes 
tired of Madame de Mailly, 53, 
59 ; makes a favorite of Pauline 
Felicite, 54; his remorse, 54, 55; 
his dismay at death of Countess 
de Vintimille, 58; makes a fa- 
vorite of Madame de la Tournelle, 
62 et seq. ; his severity towards 
Madame de Mailly, 61 ; dismisses 
Madame de Mailly from court, 
65; his economy, 69; makes 
Madame de la Tournelle Duchess 
of Chateauroux, 69, 70; isolates 
himself at court, 71 ; hesitates to 
join his troops, 72-74; at the head 
of his troops, 74 ; misses Madame 
de Chateauroux, 76 ; receives 
Madame de Chateauroux at Lille, 
77; goes to Metz, 78; falls ill, 
79 ; is compelled to dismiss 
Madame de Chateauroux, 79 ; 
receives extreme unction, 80; 
grief of France at illness of, 81 ; 
his reconciliation with the Queen, 
81; repentant only when sick, 
83, 180, 181; returns to Paris, 88; 



280 



INDEX 



visits Madame de Chateauroux, 
88, 89 ; his neglect of Madame de 
Chateauroux during her last ill- 
ness, 90 ; his emotions transitory, 
92 ; his personal attractions, 95, 
96 ; his religious feelings, 98 ; his 
ennui, 92, 99, 100, 133 ; his monar- 
chical faith, 101; how he differs 
from Louis XIV., 101, 102 ; among 
his troops, 102; not as indolent 
as accused of being, 103 ; his sen- 
suality, 103, 104; his distrust and 
timidity, 104; his dissimulation, 
105, 205; his indecision, 105; 
D'Argenson's portrait of, 105, 
106; neglects the Queen, 107; re- 
ceives Marie Therese Antoinette 
Raphaelle at ^^tarapes, 110; his 
meeting with Madame d'liltioles 
at the Hotel de Ville ball, 120; in- 
stalls Madame d'^tioles at Ver- 
sailles, 121; joins the army, 122; 
confers title of Marquise de Pom- 
padour on Madame d':6tioles,124 ; 
returns to Versailles, 125; relin- 
quishes his military activity, 129, 
130 ; his policy in the peace of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, 130; yields up the 
fruit of his conquests, 130, 131; 
Voltaire's lines to, 131 ; change of 
public feeling toward, 132; his 
interest in the theatre of Madame 
de Pompadour, 138; becomes 
bored by dramatic spectacles, 
145 ; transfers performances from 
Versailles to chateau of Belle- 
vue, 145, 146 ; his conscience un- 
easy, 158; equestrian statue of, 
159, 160; public attacks on, 165, 
166; his Jubilee, 169, 171, 172; 
his religious tendencies, 166, 173; 
retains Madame de Pompadour 
only through compassion, 174; 
wounded by Damiens, 180-182; 
public sympathy for, 182; re- 
ceives Madame de Pompadour 
graciously, 187 ; his attitude 
towards Jansenism, 196; his 
spirit of compromise, 197; sum- 



mons Christopher de Beaumont 
to the archbishopric of Paris, 196; 
sends de Beaumont to Conflans, 
197; recalls de Beaumont, 199; 
his enmity to Parliament, 198, 
200; his indecision, 203, 204; his 
attitude toward Austria, 205 ; ac- 
cepts resignation of Abbe Bernis, 
210, 211 ; gives up cities possessed 
in Germany, 212 ; his words con- 
cerning famous men of letters of 
France, 214; revokes the privi- 
leges of editors of the Encyclo- 
pedia, 216, 217 ; anonymous letter 
to, 217, 218; called a Herod by 
the people, 219, 220; his words 
at the funeral of Madame de 
Pompadour, 231 ; fond of the so- 
ciety of his daughters, 255, 256 ; 
selects a second wife for the 
Dauphin, 258; at the death-bed 
of his wife, 273. 

Louis XIV., 13, 101; his attitude 
towards Jansenism, 195. 

Louis XVI., 265. 

Louis XVIII., 265. 

Louise, Madame, 247, 255. 

Luynes, Duchess de, 127, 128 ; Marie 
Leczinska's letters to, 241, 242; 
Marie Leczinska's friendship for, 
241, 242. 

Luynes, Duke de, his gift to Marie 
Leczinska, 241, 242. 



Machault, M. de, his attitude 
towards Madame de Pompadour, 
183 ; his interview with Madame 
de Pompadour, 184, 185. 

Mailly, Countess de, 1, 46; her 
birth and marriage, 47 ; descrip- 
tion of, by Le Roy, 47 ; becomes 
mistress of Louis XV., 47,48 ; loses 
affection of the King, 53; intro- 
duces her sister, Pauline Felicite, 
to the King, 54; her grief at 
death of her sister, 58 ; dismissed 
from court, 60 et seq. ; pitied by 
every one, 64 ; pensioned by the 



INDEX 



281 



King, 67; her last years, 93; her 
last days and death, 170-172. 

Mariage fait et rompu, Le, per- 
formed at Versailles, 139. 

Maria Theresa, 204 ; her display of 
admiration for Louis XV., 205. 

Marie Anne Victoire, Infanta, affi- 
anced to Louis XIV., 14, 15 ; sent 
back to Spain on account of her 
youth, 18, 20, 21 ; marries Joseph 
Emanuel, 21. 

Marie Antoinette, 2. 

Marie Josephe of Saxony, the Dau- 
phin ess, 259; the marriage of, 
with the Dauphin, 259 et seq.; 
the Duke de Richelieu's words 
concerning, 261 ; leaves Dresden 
for Versailles, 261 ; Marshal 
Saxe's words concerning, 261, 
262; marries the Dauphiu, 261- 
263; burdened by court etiquette, 
263, 264; makes herself beloved, 
264; her children, 264, 265; a 
perfect wife and mother, 265 ; 
her words at the death of the 
Dauphin, 267; her death, 268; 
her life a symbol, 271. 

Marie Leczinska, 2; her birth 
23; her character, 23-25, 272, 
273; Duke of Bourbon's words 
concerning, 25; suddenly called 
to the throne of France, 24, 25; 
her marriage to Louis XV., 26; 
her letter to her father concern- 
ing her reception by the French 
people, 26, 27 ; meets Louis XV., 
27; her gifts to the ladies of the 
court, 27 ; pleases every one, 28 ; 
goes to Versailles, 29 ; her early 
married life happy, 30; jealous 
of influence of Fleury over Louis 
XV., 32; her worthy life, 40; 
gives birth to twins, 40; her 
pious excursion to Paris, 40, 41 ; 
her children, 41, 245 et seq. ; her 
behavior towards Louis XV., 41, 
42; her suffering on account of 
the favor of Madame de Mailly 
with the King, 48 ; her sympathy 



for Madame de Mailly, 64 ; visits 
the King ill at Metz, 81-83; her 
disappointment regarding the 
King's feelings towards her, 83 ; 
her feelings at the death of 
Madame de Chateauroux, 91; 
D'Argenson's words concerning, 
106; iier tenth child, 106; neg- 
lected by the King, 107; her 
daily life, 107, 108; her peace of 
heart, 109; called the " Good 
Queen," 109; her reception of 
Madame de Pompadour, 126; her 
feelings towards Madame de 
Pompadour, 128 ; refuses to per- 
mit Madame de Pompadour to 
take part in religious service, 
169; her words concerning Ma- 
dame de Pompadour after the 
latter's death, 231 ; compared 
with Madame de Pompadour, 
233-235, 276; her character, 233 
et seq.; portrait of, by La Tour, 
236; Nattier's portrait of, 237; 
sketch of ,by Madame du Deffand, 
237, 238; her circle of friends, 
238; her words to President He- 
nault, 239; President Henault's 
verses to, 239; Fontanelle's 
verses to, 239, 240; her letters to 
the Duchess de Luynes, 241, 242; 
her friendship for the Duchess 
de Luynes 241, 242; her solid 
information, 243; a tender 
mother, 245, 255 ; the daughters 
of, 245 et seq. ; her resignation 
in grief at loss of two of her 
daughters, 255; her relations to 
her children, 255, 256 ; her apart- 
ments, 256, 257; her liking for 
Marie Josephe, the Dauphiness, 
264; loses her son and father, 
266, 267; crushed by sorrow, 268; 
goes to the Carmelite convent of 
Compiegne, 270; Madame de 
Campan's words concerning, 270 ; 
universally beloved, 272; falls 
ill, 273; her last moments and 
death, 273-275 ; her funeral, 276 ; 



282 



INDEX 



the last Queen who ended her 
days on the throne of France, 276. 

Marie The'rese Antoinette Ra- 
phaelle, her marriage to the 
Dauphin, 110; her amiability, 
111 ; her death, 129, 130, 258. 

Massillon, 275. 

Maurepas, 89, 90, 162. 

Memoirs of court of Louis XV., 3. 

Mere coquette, performed at Ver- 
sailles, 142. 

Michelet, his words concerning 
Madame de Prie, 36 ; his effort to 
cast ridicule on the daughters of 
Louis XV., 245 ; accuses Madame 
Elisabeth of being the cause of 
the Seven Years' War, 253, 254. 

Montpensier, Mademoiselle, her 
birth and marriage, 19; becomes 
Queen of Spain, 19; sent back 
to France, 20; her later life, 
21. 

Motte, Mademoiselle de la, 117. 

Nattier, his portrait of Marie 

Lezinska, 237. 
Nesle, Mademoiselle de, see Feli- 

cite, Pauline. 
Nuptial ceremony of putting to 

bed, described, 262, 263. 

Orleans, Duke of, 16 ; sketch of his 
career, 113, 114. 

Palissot, verses by, 228. 

Parliament, Madame de Pompa- 
dour's conduct towards, 194; 
Louis XV. 's attitude towards, 
196-198, 200; one hundred and 
fifty members of, resign, 198; 
members of, pose as protectors 
of liberty, 200. 

I'erusseau, 79. 

Philip, Don, son of Philip V. of 
Spain, marries Madame Elisa- 
beth, 247; obtains sovereignty 
of Parma, Piacenza, and Guas- 
tella, 247.; not esteemed by his 
wife, 253. 



Philip V. of Spain, 18, 19. 

Poisson, Abel, 148, 149, 160. 

Poisson, Frau9ois, 117. 

Poisson, Jeanne Antoine, after- 
wards Marquise de Pompadour, 
117; see Pompadour, Madame 
de. 

Pompadour, Marquise de, 1, 6 ; her 
character, 116, 117; her birth 
and early life, 117; her accom- 
plishments, 117; her marriage, 
118; President Henault's words 
concerning, 118; plans to cap- 
ture the fancy of Louis XV., 
119; appears as Diana at the 
Hotel de Ville ball, 119, 120 ; her 
children, 120; makes her way 
into Versailles, 120, 121; con- 
cealed by Louis XV., 121 ; with- 
draws to her chateau at liltioles, 
122; receives title of Marquise, 
124 ; her presentation, 125 ; treat- 
ment of her by the court, 127; 
her attitude toward the Queen, 
127-129; her theatre of the little 
Cabinets, 132 et seq. ; her fear 
of losing the interest of the 
King, 133; her successes as an 
actress, 132, 134, 139, 140, 142, 
145; wants to play comedy at 
Versailles, 135; draws up regu- 
lations for players at her theatre, 
137, 138; plays and sings, 139; 
in the ballet of Almases, 140 ; her 
last performance, 146 ; Rous- 
seau's letter to, 146 ; her power, 
pomp, and opulence, 147 et seq. ; 
her sepulchre, 149; her beauty, 
149, 150; what she cost France, 
150; her dwellings and apart- 
ments, 150-152; verses to, by 
Voltaire, 122-124, 145, 152-154; 
her griefs and sadness, 156 et 
seq. ; threatened with death, 
157; insulted by Madame de 
Coaslin, 157; her lack of con- 
fidence in the King, 156, 158; 
like Scheherezade, 158; her de- 
sire to marry her daughter 



INDEX 



283 



Alexandrine, 160-162; death of 
her daughter Alexandrine, 160; 
verses at death of her mother, 
160; Sainte-Beuve's words con- 
cerning, 161; Paris implacable 
towards, 162; verses abusing 
her, 163-166 ; suffers under pub- 
lic abuse, 167 ; ready to do any- 
thing to hold her place, 168 ; 
makes a show of devotion, 168- 
170, 173; has a statue made 
of herself, 170; is attacked by 
fever, 170; her feeliug of inse- 
curity, 170, 171; endeavors to 
obtain absoluliou from the Jesu- 
its, 173, 174 ; refused absolution 
by Pere de Sarcy, ni, 175; so- 
licits a place as lady of the 
Queen's palace, 175 ; declares 
her willingness to be reconciled 
to her husband, 175, 176; receives 
communion, 177 ; becomes a lady 
of the palace, 177, 178 ; her con- 
duct when Louis XV. was 
woimded by Damiens, 182, 183; 
attitude of the three principal 
ministers towards, 183; inter- 
view of M. de Machault with, 
184, 185; meets the King and 
resumes her domination, 186- 
189; her grudge against the 
Jesuits, 189; her note to the 
Pope censuring the Jesuits, 189- 
192; her methods in politics, 
193, 194 ; held responsible for the 
Seven Years' War, 201 ; her inter- 
est in porcelains, 202; her atti- 
tude toward the Austrian al- 
liance, 205 et seq. ; her obstinacy, 
209, 211 ; the object- of public 
vindictiveness, 213; her attitude 
towards Voltaire, 215; her atti- 
tude towards Quesnay, 215 ; her 
attitude towards the philoso- 
phers, 214 et seq., 221; La Tour's 
pastel of, 216 ; anonymous letters 
to, 217, 218; reviled by the peo- 
ple, 220; effects the expulsion of 
the Jesuits, 221, 222; eulogized 



by Voltaire, 223; foresees the 
crumbling of the government, 
224 ; aged prematurely, 226, 227 ; 
her courage in suffering, 227; 
falls ill at Choisy, 227 ; feels the 
coming of death, 229; fears the 
King more than God, 229; her 
death-bed, 229, 230; her will, 
230 ; her death, 230, 231 ; funeral 
service of, 231 ; regretted by the 
men of letters, 232, 233; com- 
pared with Marie Leczinska, 
233-235, 276. 

Porcelains, Madame de Pompa- 
dour's interest in, 202. 

Pi'ecis du siecle de Louis XV., 
Voltaire's, 154. 

Prejuf/e a la mode, Le, performed 
at Versailles, 139. 

Prie, Marquise de, mistress of the 
Duke of Bourbon, 16; influence 
of, at court, 16, 18 ; her life, 17 ; 
pleased at marriage of Louis XV. 
to Marie Leczinska, 31 ; plots to 
get rid of Fleury, Bishop of 
Frejus, 33; expelled from coui-t 
by Louis XV., 35; the bitterness 
of her last years, 36, 37 ; her 
death, 38 ; rumored to have pois- 
oned herself, 38. 

Provence, Count of, 265. 

Quesnay, 183, 185; the confidant 
of Madame de Pompadour, 215; 
his character, 216. 

Revolution, the, prophecies of, 218, 
219, 224. 

Richelieu, Duke de, description of, 
by D'Argenson, 61; his plan at 
court, 62; made first gentleman 
of the chamber, 71 ; his exaspera- 
tion at the favor of Madame de 
Pompadour with the King, 127 ; 
quarrel of, witli Duke de la Val- 
liere, 142-144; his treatment of 
Madame de Pompadour, 143, 
261 ; his words concerning Marie 
Josephe of Saxony, 259. 



284 



INDEX 



Rohan, Cardiual, 26. 
Rousseau, his letter to Madame de 
Pompadour, 146. 

Sainte-Beuve, his words concerning 
Madame de Pompadour, 161 ; his 
description of La Tour's pastel 
of Marie Leczinska, 236. 

Saint Monica, 269. 

Sarcy, Pere de, refuses Madame 
de Pompadour absolution, 174, 
175, 190. 

Saxe, Marshal, negotiates the 
marriage of Marie Josephe of 
Saxony with the Dauphin, 258- 
261 ; his words concerning Marie 
Josephe, 261, 262 ; his description 
of the ceremonial of putting to 
bed, 262, 263. 

" Scliool of Man, The," a pamphlet 
attacking Louis XV., 165, 166. 

Seven Years' War, the, Madame 
de Pompadour held responsible 
for, 201 ; the results of, 212. 

Sophie, Madame, 247, 255. 

Soubise, 209. 

Surprises de I'amour, Les, per- 
formed at Versailles, 142. 

Tancred, performed at Versailles, 
142. 

Tartuffe, performed at Versailles, 
139. 

Theatre of the little Cabinets, at 
Versailles, 136, 137 et seq.; regu- 
lations for players at, 137, 138; 
dramatic performances at, 139, 
140; collection of comedies per- 
formed at, 141. 

Thetis et Felee, performance of, 
170. 

Toulouse, Countess de, her apart- 
ment at Versailles, ~49; accused 
of aiding the intimacy of Louis 
XV. and Madame de Mailly, 
50. 

Tournehem, M. Lenormand de, 
117. 



Tournelle, Madame de la, her birth 
and marriage, 60 ; appointed lady 
of the palace, 60 ; becomes a fa- 
vorite of the King, 62; deter- 
mines to have Madame de Mailly 
dismissed from court, 62, 63; 
her triumph, 65-67; inferior to 
Madame de Montespan, 68; be- 
comes Duchess of Chateauroux, 
69-71 ; see Chateauroux, Duchess 
of. 

Tournelle, Marquis de la, 60. 

Trots Coiisines, Les, performed at 
Versailles, 139. 

Unigenitus, the bull, 195, 196, 
200. 

Valliere, Duke de la, quarrel of, 
with Duke de Richelieu, 142- 
144. 

Vanloo, 232. 

Versailles, deserted after death of 
Louis XIV., 13; festivities at, 
111, 112; theatre constructed for 
Madame de Pompadour at, 136; 
Madame de Pompadour's apart- 
ments at, 150, 151 ; the treaty of, 
204, 206; an Austrian party at, 
205. 

Victoire, Madame, 247, 255. 

Vintimi lie. Countess de, gives birth 
to a boy, 57 ; her death, 57, 58 ; 
see Felicite, Pauline. 

Vitzthum, Count, 259. 

Voltaire, his words concerning 
Marie Leczinska, 27, 28; his 
Henri IV., 28, 29; obtains a pen- 
sion, 29; with Madame d'i^tioles 
at her chateau, 122; his lines 
to Madame d'liltioles, 122-124; 
his lines to Louis XV., 131; his 
lines to Madame de Pompadour 
at her toilet, 145 ; his flattery of 
Madame de Pompadour, 152-155, 
215; his Enfant prodigue pro- 
duced at Versailles, 139, 154; 
turns against Madame de Pom- 
padour, 166, 167, 208; quoted, 



INDEX 



285 



211; his words concerning Seven 
Years' War, 212, 213; eulogizes 
Madame de Pompadour, 223 ; liis 
pleasure in foreseeing the French 
Revolution, 224; his words con- 



cerning Madame de Pompadour 
after the latter's death, 232. 

Women of court of Louis XV., 1 et 
sqq. 



Norfaootf ^usa : 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith. 

Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE 
FRENCH COURT 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS 



FORMER series of M. Imbert de Saint-Amand's historical 
works have depicted the great French historical epochs 
of modern times. The stirring events of the Revolution, of the 
Consulate and Empire, and of the Restoration period, ending with 
the July revolution of 1830 and the accession of Louis Philippe, 
are grouped around the attractive personalities of Marie An- 
toinette, the Empresses Josephine and Marie Louise, and the 
Duchesses of Angouleme and of Berry. The remarkable and 
uniform success of these works has induced the publishers to un- 
dertake the translation and publication of a previous series of M. 
de Saint-Amand's volumes which deal with epochs more remote, 
but not for that reason less important, interesting, or instructive. 
The distinction of the cycle now begun with the " Women of the 
Valois Court " and ending with " The Last Years of Louis XV.," 
is that, whereas in former series several volumes have been de- 
voted to the historical events associated with each of the titular 
personalities to which they were closely related, in the present 
instance a more condensed method is followed. The color of 
the present series is more personal, and therefore more romantic, 
as is to be expected in the annals of a period during which the 
famous women of the French Court were not only more numer- 
ous but more influential than their successors of later times. 
The dawn of the modern era, chronicled in M. de Saint-Amand's 
" Marie Antoinette and the End of the Old Regime " was the 
beginning of the extinction of the feminine influence that flour- 
ished vigorously in affairs of state from Marguerite of Angouleme 
to Madame Dubarry. It is the history of this influence that the 
author has graphically written in the four volumes now announced 
— "Women of the Valois Court," "The Court of Louis XIV.," 
and " The Court of Louis XV.," and " The Last Years of Louis 
XV." 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT 

The first volume is devoted to Marguerite of Angouleme and 
Catherine de' Medici and their contemporaries at the French 
court during the days of the last of the Valois — the most ro- 
mantic period of royalty probably in all history. The two principal 
figures are depicted with striking vividness, — the half Catholic, 
half Protestant sister of Francis I., the grandmother of Henry 
IV., the author of the famous "Heptameron," and one of the most 
admirable historical figures of any epoch ; and the diplomatic, 
ambitious, unscrupulous but extremely human Catherine, univer- 
sally held responsible for the awful Massacre of Saint Bartholo- 
mew. But the subordinate though scarcely less famous women 
who adorned the Valois Court — Diane de Poitiers, the Duchess 
d'Etampes, Marguerite of Valois, Marie Stuart, and others — 
are described with an equally brilliant and illuminating touch. 

The volumes on the women of the great Bourbon epoch, 
the epoch of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., when the Bourbon 
star was in the zenith, contain a great deal of intimate history 
as well as setting in relief the interesting personalities of the 
famous La Valli^re and Montespan and that perennial historical 
enigma, Madame de Maintenon, in the volume devoted to the 
court of the " Sun King," and those of Madame de Pompadour, 
Madame Dubarry, Queen Marie Leczinski, and other celebrities 
who made Versailles what it was during the long and varied 
reign of Louis XV. The study of Madame de Maintenon is a 
real contribution to history, and the pictures of the clever and 
dazzling beauties who controlled so long the destinies not only 
of France but measurably of Europe itself from the accession of 
"le Grand Monarque" to the first threatenings of the Revolution 
"deluge" are extremely hfehke and skilfully executed. The his- 
torical chronicle of the time is by no means lost sight of by the 
author, but in this series even more than in his works heretofore 
published in English he appears not only as an interesting and 
impartial historian, but as a brilliant historical portraitist. 

FOUR NEW VOLUMES. 

WOMEN OF THE VALOIS AND VERSAILLES COURTS. 

Each with Portraits, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, jfs.oo; half calf, $10.00. 
- WOMEN OF THE VALOIS COURT. 
. THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV. 
THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 
THE LAST YEARS OF LOUIS XV. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT 



VOLUMES PREVIOUSLY ISSUED. 



THREE VOLUMES ON MARIE ANTOINETTE. 
Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half calf , $7.50. 
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD REGIME. 
MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES. 
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY. 

In this series is unfolded the tremendous panorama of political events in 
which the unfortunate Queen had so influential a share, beginning with the days 
immediately preceding the Revolution, when court life at Versailles was so gay and 
unsuspecting, continuing with the enforced journey of the royal family to Paris, and 
the agitating months passed in the Tuileries, and concluding with the abolition of 
royalty, the proclamation of the Republic, and the imprisonment of the royal family, 
— the initial stage of their progress to the guillotine. 

THREE VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 
Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half calf, $7.50. 
CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 
THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 
^ THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 

The romantic and eventful period beginning with Josephine's marriage, com- 
prises the astonishing Italian campaign, the Egyptian expedition, the coup d'etat of 
Brumaire, and is described in the first of the above volumes; while the second treats 
of the brilliant society which issued from the chaos of the Revolution, and over 
which Madame Bonaparte presided so charmingly; and the third, of the events 
between the assumption of the imperial title by Napoleon and the end of 1807, 
including, of course, the Austerlitz campaign. 

FOUR VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE. 
Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $5.00; half calf, $10.00. 
THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 
MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. ^ 

The auspicious marriage of the Archduchess Marie Louise to the master of 
Europe; the Russian invasion, with its disastrous conclusion a few years later; the 
Dresden and Leipsic campaign; the invasion of France by the Allies, and the mar- 
vellous military strategy of Napoleon in 1814, ending only with his defeat and exile 
to Elba; his life in his little principality; his romantic escape and dramatic return to 
France; the preparations of the Hundred Days; Waterloo and the definitive restora- 
tion of Louis XVIII. closing the era begun in 1789, with "The End of the Old 
Regime," — are the subjects of the four volumes grouped around the personality of 
Marie Louise. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT 

TWO VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME. 

Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $2.50; half calf, $3.00. 

THE YOUTH OF THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME. 
. THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME AND THE TWO RESTORATIONS. 

The period covered in this first of these volumes begins with the life of the 
daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette imprisoned in the Temple after the 
execution of her parents, and ends with the accession of Louis XVIIL after the abdica- 
tion of Napoleon at Fontainebleau. The first Restoration, its illusions, the characters 
of Louis XVIIL, of his brother, afterwards Charles X., of the Dukes of Angouleme 
and Berry, sons of the latter, the life of the Court, the feeling of the city, Napoleon's 
sudden return from Elba, the Hundred Days from the Royalist side, the second 
Restoration, and the vengeance taken by the new government on the Imperialists, 
form the subject-matter of the second volume. 

THREE VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF BERRY. 

Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half calf, $7.50. 

THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF LOUIS XVIIL 

THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF CHARLES X. 

_..THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE REVOLUTION OF JULY, 1830. 

The Princess Marie Caroline, of Naples, became, upon her marriage with the 
Duke of Berry, the central figure of the French Court during the reigns of both 
Louis XVIIL and Charles X. The former of these was rendered eventful by the 
assassination of her husband and the birth of her son, the Count of Chambord, and 
the latter was from the first marked by those reactionary tendencies which resulted 
in the dethronement and exile of the Bourbons. The dramatic Revolution which 
brought about the July monarchy of Louis Philippe, has never been more vividly 
and intelligently described than in the last volume devoted to the Duchess of Berry. 

" In these translations of this interesting series of sketches, we have 
found an unexpected amount of pleasure aiid profit. The author cites 
for us passages from forgotten diaries, hitherto unearthed letters, extracts 
from public proceedings, and the like, and cojitrives to combine and 
arrange his material so as to make a great many very vivid and pleas- 
ing pictures. Nor is this all. The 7naterial he lays before us is of real 
value, and much, if not most of it, must be unknown save to the special 
students of the period. We can, therefore, cordiclly commend these books 
to the attention of our readers. They will find the??t attractive in their 
arrangement, never dull, with much variety of scene and incident, and 
admirably translated.^'' — The Nation, of December ig, i8go. 



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$1.25; paper, 50 cts. In the Valley. Illustrated. i2mo, $1.50. 

" It is almost reasonable to assert that there has not been since Cooper's 
day a better American novel dealing with a purely historical theme than 
' In the Valley. ' "-r-^^?^^^ Beacon. 

James Anthony Froude. 

The Two Chiefs of Dunboy. An Irish Romance of the Last 
Century, i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.50. 

" The narrative is full of vigor, spirit and dramatic power. It will 
unquestionably be widely read, for it presents a vivid and life-like study of 
character with romantic color, and adventurous incident for the back- 
ground." — 7'he New York Tribune. 



4 SCRIBNER'S BRIEF LIST OF FICTION. 

Robert Grant. 

Face to Face. i2mo, paper, 5octs. ; cloth, $1,25. The Reflec- 
tions of a Married Man* i2mo, paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00. 

" In the ' Reflections,' Mr. Grant has given us a capital little book which 
should easily strike up literary comradeship with ' The Reveries of a 
Bachelor.'" — Boston Transcript. 

Edward Everett Hale. 

Philip Nolan's Friends. lUust'd. i2mo, paper, 5octs.; cloth, $1.50. 

" There is no question, we think, that this is Mr. Hale's completest and 
best novel." — The Atlantic Monthly. 

Marion Harland. 

Judith. i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. Handicapped. 
i2mo, $1.50. With the Best Intentions. i2mo, cloth, $1.00; 
paper, 50 cts. 

" Fiction has afforded no more charming glimpses of old Virginia life 
than are found in this delightful story, with its quaint pictures, its admir- 
ably drawn characters, its wit, and its frankness." 

— The Brooklyn Daily Times. 

Joel Chandler Harris. 

Free Joe, and Other Georgian Sketches. i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; 
cloth, $1.00. 
" The author's skill as a story writer has never been more felicitously 
illustrated than in this volume." — The New York Sun. 

Augustus Allen Hayes. 

The Jesuit's Ring; i2mo, paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00. 
" The conception of the story is excellent." — The Boston Traveller. 

George A. Hibhard. 

The Governor, and Other Stories. i2mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 

50 cts. 

"It is still often urged that, except in remote corners, there is nothing 

in our American life which appeals to the artistic sense, but certainly these 

stories are American to the core, and yet the artistic sense is strong in them 

throughout. " — Critic. 

E. T. IV. Hoffmann. 

Weird Tales. With Portrait. i2mo, 2 vols., $3.00. 

"All those who are in search of a genuine literary sensation, or who 
care for the marvelous and supernatural, will find these two volumes fas- 
cinating reading." — The Christian Union. 



SCRIBNER'S BRSEF LIST OF FICTION. 5 

Dr. J. G. Holland. 

Sevenoaks. The Bay Path. Arthur Bonnicastle. Miss Gilbert's 
Career. Nicholas IVUnturn; Each, i2mo, $1.25; the set, $6.25. 
Sevenoaks and Arthur Bonnicastle. Each, paper, 50c. 

"Dr. Holland will always find a congenial audience in the homes of 
culture and refinement. He does not affect the play of the darker and 
fiercer passions, but delights in the sweet images that cluster around the 
domestic hearth. He cherishes a strong fellow-feeling with the pure and 
tranquil life in the modest social circles of the American people, and has 
thus won his way to the companionship of many friendly hearts." 

— The New York Tribune. 

Thomas A. Janvier. 

Color Studies, and a Mexican Campaign. i2mo, paper^ 50 cts. ; 

cloth, $1.00. 

"Piquant, novel and ingenious, these little stories, with all their simplicity, 

have excited a wide interest. The best of them, 'Jaune D'Antimoine,' f"- 

a little wonder in its dramatic effect, its ingenious construction." — Critic. 

Andrew Lang. 

The Mark of Cain. i2mo, paper, 25 cts. 
" No one can deny that it is crammed as full of incident as it will hold 
or that the elaborate plot is worked out with most ingenious perspicuity.'^ 

— The Saturday Review. 

George P. Lathrop. 

Newport. 1 2mo, paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25. An Echo of Passion. 
i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1,00. In the Distance. i2mo 

paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. 
" His novels have the refinement of motive which characterize th* 
analytical school, but his manner is far more direct and dramatic." 

— The Christian Union. 

Brander Matthews. 

The Secret of the Sea, and Other Stories. i2mo, paper, 50 cts.; 

cloth, $1.00. The Last Meeting. i2mo, cloth, $1.00. 

" Mr. Matthews is a man of wide observation and of much familiarity 

with the world. His literary style is bright and crisp, with a peculiar 

sparkle about it — wit and humor judiciously mingled — which renders his 

pages more than ordinarily interesting." — The Rochester Post-Express, 

George Moore. 

Vain Fortune. i2mo, $1.00. 
"How a woman's previous ideas and actions will completely change 
when the medium of a wild, intense love is interposed, was never more 
skilfully sketched." — Boston Times. 



SCRIBNER'S BRIEF LIST OF FICTION. 



Fit^-James O'Brien. 

The Diamond Lens, with Other Stories. i2mo, paper, 50 cts. 

"These stories are the only things in literature to be compared with 
Poe's work, and if they do not equal it in workmanship, they certainly do 
not yield to it in originality." — The Philadelphia Record. 

Duffleld Osborne. 

The Spell of Ashtaroth. i2mo, $1.00. 

" It has a simple but picturesque plot, and the story is told in a vi'idly 
dramatic way." — Chicago Times. 

Bliss Perry. 

The Broughton House. i2mo, $1.25. 

"A wonderfully shrewd and vivid picture of life in one of our hill 
towns in summer." — Hartford Fosi, 

«. 

Thomas Nelson Page. 

In Old Virginia. . Marse Chan and Other Stories. i2mo, $1.25. 
On Newfound River. i2mo, $1.00. Elsket, and Other Stories. 
1 2mo, $1.00.' Marse Chan. Ills, by Smedley. Sq.i2mo. $1.50. 

"Mr. Page enjoys the distinction of having written the most exquisite 
story of the war (' Marse Chan '), which has yet appeared. His stories 
are beautiful and faithful pictures of a society now become a portion and 
parcel of the irrevocable past." — Harper's Magazine. 

George I. Putnam. 

In Blue Uniform; i2mo, $1.00. 

The author of this love story, who is an ex-army officer, has given a 
very natural picture of garrison life in the Far West, with strong character 
studies, and a sufficient diversity of incident to give movement and cumu- 
lative interest to the tale. 

Saxe Holm's Stories. 

First Series. Second Series. Each, i2mo, paper, 50c; cloth, $1 .00. 

" Saxe Holm's characters are strongly drawn, and she goes right to the 
heart of human experience, as one who knows the way. We heartily 
commend them as vigorous, wholesome, and sufficiently exciting stories." 

— The Advance 



